Baby Doll Games (Sigrid Harald Mystery)

Rating:
Summary: Best in the Sigrid Harald series
Review: Margaret Maron is not the greatest mystery writer of our day, but this is her best. She masterfully describes the incredible murder and twists in a side plot that's brilliant (although slightly predictable). If you buy only one Margaret Maron mystery (which I recommend), buy this one or "The Right Jack."

Rating:
Summary: Best in the Sigrid Harald series
Review: Margaret Maron is not the greatest mystery writer of our day, but this is her best. She masterfully describes the incredible murder and twists in a side plot that's brilliant (although slightly predictable). If you buy only one Margaret Maron mystery (which I recommend), buy this one or "The Right Jack."

Rating:
Summary: Boring and uninteresting
Review: This was my first, and only, book by Maron and if this is an example of her work, deliver me. The Editorial review can't even get the thing correct. Sigrid had nothing to do with the special therapy dolls, that was the crazy psychologist whose name I have already forgotten. A Greenwich Village dancer was brutally killed in front of a roomful of people and it took Sigrid some few hundred pages to figure out who was the killer, even though it had to have been one of about 6 of her coworkers. Combined with this murder is the unsolved murder of a little girl, killed some months before, apparently by someone in this same theatre group. Don't read it unless you have to.

Rating:
Summary: Boring and uninteresting
Review: This was my first, and only, book by Maron and if this is an example of her work, deliver me. The Editorial review can't even get the thing correct. Sigrid had nothing to do with the special therapy dolls, that was the crazy psychologist whose name I have already forgotten. A Greenwich Village dancer was brutally killed in front of a roomful of people and it took Sigrid some few hundred pages to figure out who was the killer, even though it had to have been one of about 6 of her coworkers. Combined with this murder is the unsolved murder of a little girl, killed some months before, apparently by someone in this same theatre group. Don't read it unless you have to.

Rating:
Summary: Sometimes, you get a yen to go back and reread...
Review: titles or series you've enjoyed. I've had just such a wish with Margaret Maron's first series, the Sigrid Harald "cop" series, set in New York City. Sigrid's a bit of a loner, who starts to find her true self after she makes Lieutenant in a midtown squad. The first 4 books in the series are all worth reading (Start with "One Coffee With", "Death of a Butterfly", "Death in Blue Folders" and "The Right Jack") and lead up to "Baby Doll Games", in which Maron uses the literary trick of slipping inside a minor character's part (the child psychologist) to give the reader some thought-provoking clues as to how the story will end. The major theme, the death of a compelling young dancer, will hold your interest, but it is the minor mystery, about two youngsters, that provides the incredible plot twist and ending. This book also dives in more thoroughly to the totally goofy Roman Tramegra, who gives Harald's asetic home life some warmth and style. Possibly the best book in this series, although my personal favorite comes along in 7th position..."Past Imperfect". Maron delivers no matter if her heroine is Harald, or the decidedly more feminine Deborah Knotts. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Sometimes, you get a yen to go back and reread...
Review: titles or series you've enjoyed. I've had just such a wish with Margaret Maron's first series, the Sigrid Harald "cop" series, set in New York City. Sigrid's a bit of a loner, who starts to find her true self after she makes Lieutenant in a midtown squad. The first 4 books in the series are all worth reading (Start with "One Coffee With", "Death of a Butterfly", "Death in Blue Folders" and "The Right Jack") and lead up to "Baby Doll Games", in which Maron uses the literary trick of slipping inside a minor character's part (the child psychologist) to give the reader some thought-provoking clues as to how the story will end. The major theme, the death of a compelling young dancer, will hold your interest, but it is the minor mystery, about two youngsters, that provides the incredible plot twist and ending. This book also dives in more thoroughly to the totally goofy Roman Tramegra, who gives Harald's asetic home life some warmth and style. Possibly the best book in this series, although my personal favorite comes along in 7th position..."Past Imperfect". Maron delivers no matter if her heroine is Harald, or the decidedly more feminine Deborah Knotts. Enjoy!