The Sleeping Doll

The Sleeping Doll – by Jeffery Deaver

Kathryn Dance was a character that we were first introduced to in the last Jeffery Deaver book, The Cold Moon.  That was one of Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme books, and the character of Dance was brought in to help Rhyme and company solve a case.  Dance, it seems, is a private investigator from the West Coast, who is also a “Kinesics Expert”.  What this means, essentially, is that she has the unique ability to read a person’s body language and Para verbal behavior, and tell whether or not a person is lying.  Sort of a human polygraph machine.  Her appearance in that story was welcome, as it helped keep the Rhyme series somewhat “fresh”, and since Deaver does an immense amount of research for his books, we learned a lot about the art of people lying.

It was great, then, when Deaver decide to promote Ms. Dance and make her the main protagonist for many of his future books.  This one was the first, and it’s very good.  The formula, though, really isn’t that much different from a Lincoln Rhyme adventure.  We meet Kathryn Dance, learn things about her personal life (such as she is a widow and has two children), meet some of her colleagues (that we know will probably remain as supporting actors in future books), and learn an awful lot about kinesics.

For this story, she’s sent to question Daniel Pell – a man behind bars, to see if he can assist with knowledge of a current crime.  Pell is dubbed the “Son of Manson” as his history and crimes resemble the infamous lunatic Charles Manson.  Like Manson, Pell is pretty smart, so the interrogation, in a strange way, turns out to be a battle of wits.  On a somewhat tangent point, Pell manages to escape during a prison transfer, so our main focus now is for Dance and her team to put their smarts to the test and find him.

Here is where the distinction between a Rhyme story and a Dance story can get a bit blurred.  Whereas Rhyme would find every minute piece of evidence and micro analyze it help him solve the conundrum, Dance essentially does the same thing by talking to everyone involved, and deducing the “real” truth by her gifted abilities. So, had Deaver modified this story slightly, it could have easily passed for a Lincoln Rhyme book (he and partner Amelia Sachs actually make a cameo).

We’re also allowed inside the mind of creepy Daniel Pell.  He’s able to obtain help from the outside by a gullible young woman who has fallen in love with him via correspondence, and we see how Pell utilizes his gift of controlling other human beings.  Creepy, yes, and those who followed the Charles Manson story can probably learn how such individuals are able to obtain a large amount of zealous votaries.

Throw in several plot twists, several characters who aren’t what they seem, and you have the recipe for a great Jeffery Deaver book.  I thoroughly enjoyed this story, even though I felt that I’ve read such a story many times before by the same author – even with a new protagonist.