The Doll's House

October 27, 2014
British author Carver’s formulaic fifth Det. Insp. Phil Brennan novel (after The Black Road) finds Phil and his wife, Marina Esposito, a criminal psychologist, starting anew in Birmingham after enduring a horrific trauma eight months earlier. Phil, now leading a police team whose members don’t know him, looks into an unusual murder. Inside an ordinary house, sitting at a table laid for dinner, is the body of a heavily made-up woman dressed in clothes that make her look like a doll. The investigation follows predictable lines, interspersed with tension between Phil and the man who hoped to have gotten his position, Det. Sgt. Ian Sperring. Meanwhile, Marina must contend with the unwanted attentions of Hugo Gwilym, a best-selling author of pop psychology books. Gwilym’s efforts to seduce Marina complicate Phil’s inquiry once his name surfaces in connection with the case. A key character is predictably put into peril toward the end, while the killer’s identity comes as an anticlimax.

December 1, 2014
Carver keeps the tension high in the fifth entry to her crime-fiction series featuring husband-and-wife detectives Phil Brennan and Marina Esposito. The couple has moved from Colchester to Birmingham for a fresh start, but Brennan's first case with his new force is worse than anything he had come across with his former unit. A dead woman is found dressed like a doll, posed in a tea-party tableau. The investigation turns up a cache of pornographic photos and DVDs starring the victim, but it's hard to tell if she was a willing participant. In alternating chapters, readers get treated to the killer's point of view and his next potential victim alongside Brennan's investigation and Esposito's own troubles with her new university job. Carver packs a ton of details into her narrative, but the fast pace never slows. Fans of the series will know to expect the gruesome, gory scenesnew readers may need to be warned. But what a thrill ride they'll get, if they can stomach it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)