The Dollmaker

The Dollmaker is one of the best thrillers I have read in years! Stevens creates a perfect mix of allowing the reader to have enough clues --- and even to hear the voice of the perpetrator --- to understand the interlacing psychological aspects behind the characters and to maintain the suspense. Nevertheless, she withholds just enough to peak the reader's interest on every page. I was drawn into her characters, their weaknesses and depth and watching them change as the story developed. Even though the reader knows certain aspects of the ending from the very beginning, the suspense builds and builds. The ending has unexpected, shocking surprises. Everything is not all tied up with a pretty bow at the end, and yet the reader feels very satisfied. The ending was well-planned....a surprise and one also true to the characters. A doll....normally such an innocent charming item certainly gets transformed here! Delightfully creepy! Even days after finishing the last page, I am still delighted with this book. The imagery, the haunting Southern setting and the amazing writing captured my interest then and now. Amanda Stevens keeps all the spine tingles and darkness AND did it without crossing that line into gratuitous (and often boring) gore and violence too common in lesser works in the genre. Bravo! Warning: This book may cause you to remain awake until 3 or 4am reading.

Amanda Stevens is a prolific writer of popular novels who has taken a BIG step forward with The Dollmaker. She creates a world which will involve you completely. It's written from a feminine point of view to an extent, but her male characters are absolutely authentic. The interactions, good, evil, painful, desperate, loving and more are real. She just knows what she's writing about, and she makes you know it too. You don't have to have been in the South or in New Orleans to appreciate this, but I have, and her settings are complex, detailed and accurate. It's a story of love, loss, deception, and psychological terror, without relying in any way on cheap thrills. Highly recommended!

I'm an avid reader... I read daily, especially horror or suspense novels. Amanda Stevens was a new author for me. I hadn't ever read anything written by her before, and later learned that before venturing her skills with The Dollmaker, she wrote mostly "romantic suspense"... not my cup of tea. I came across Ms. Stevens through the wonderful world of Myspace, and her novel caught my attention immediately. The Dollmaker is set in the bayous of south Louisiana in Terrebonne Parish, a place I myself call "home". I live in a Houma, Louisiana which is in Terrebonne Parish, and referred to a few times in this book. I read Ms. Stevens' synopsis and instantly couldn't wait for the book to be released. My eagerness for this book was justified as soon as I opened the cover and began to read the first page. The story of Claire Doucett and her heart wrenching search for her daughter that has been missing for seven years draws you in never lets go. I wish I would have had the time to sit down and read it straight through cover to cover. I hated to have to put this book down. The characters are well developed, her settings wonderfully described, and her story fantastically told. Being a resident of the places she describes, and a frequent visitor of New Orleans, I could picture exactly where she was describing, as though I was an overseer standing across the street watching the plot unfold. For me personally, a creepy tale of obsession and need, covet and longing, desire and attraction was raised a notch when I could look outside my own window and see the settings she describes in this novel. Makes you want to check the lock on your door just one more time when turning in for the night.... Ms. Stevens did a wonderful job of making me feel conflicting emotions about the villain, the Dollmaker. I found myself feeling emotions of both outrage and pity. By the end of this novel, I found myself wanting more, wishing there was already a sequel waiting for me to now pick up and begin reading. I am thrilled Ms. Stevens made a jump to this genera of fiction and will personally continue to read future novels she will publish. Amanda Stevens has launched herself into the category of great storytellers of horror and suspense, such as Steven King, Dean Koontz, James Patterson, Jack Ketchum, and John Saul... my personal favorites. I hope you will do your own self a favor, and give Amanda Steven's The Dollmaker a try.

I've been an Amanda Stevens fan a long time, but this book blew me away. The villain is excellently crafted and the protagonists literally jump off the pages with their realism and emotional depth. Stevens handles a distrubing situation that could have come right out of the morning newspaper with credence and spellbinding suspense. Don't miss this one.

Claire Doucett's life hasn't been the same since her daughter, Ruby, was abducted seven years earlier in New Orleans. Neither Claire nor her ex-husband, Dave, ever really got over the kidnapping of their daughter. But without ever knowing for sure what had happened to their child, how could they ever be the same? While Claire spent the intervening years making an attempt to put her life back together by remarrying, Dave tried to numb his pain and guilt in a bottle. Neither was very successful. At the opening of the story, Claire is once again in the middle of a divorce and attempting to get her own life together. Her soon-to-be-ex-husband believes she's obsessed with finding her daughter alive and well, but Claire knows she could never walk away from the possibility of finding out what happened to Ruby. When she spies a doll in the window of a New Orleans shop, she is struck by the uncanny likeness the doll bears to her daughter - down to the pink, frilly dress Ruby was wearing the day she disappeared. Claire approaches Dave to help her get some answers that she's certain will give her some closure, and he agrees, even though he's already been drawn into another investigation tied to the one he was working on when their daughter disappeared. He sifts through the shattered and sometimes murky world of a post-Katrina New Orleans, disturbing more than a few old ghosts along the way. Amanda Stevens takes the reader on a journey that is, at turns, heart-breaking, bone-chilling, and hopeful - a psychological thriller that will stay with you long after you finish the book.