The Dollmaker

The Dollmaker by Amanda Stevens ~~ And now a new clue has surfaced...a doll that is the spitting image of Claire Doucett's missing child, right down to the tiny birthmark on the girl's left arm. A chance sighting of the eerily lifelike doll in a French Quarter collectibles shop leaves Claire shaken to her core...and more determined than ever to find out what happened to her beloved Ruby.
When the doll is snatched and the store's owner turns up dead, Claire knows the only person she can turn to is ex-husband Dave Creasy, a former cop who has spent the past seven years imprisoned by his own guilt and despair. He let Claire down once when she needed him the most. Can she make him believe the doll really exists? She'll have to if they're to survive an encounter with a brutal psychopath— the dollmaker—who stole their future to feed an obsession that will never die.

Seven years ago a little girl names Ruby is kidnapped. Around the same time a stripper is murdered. And today, another dancer disappears. What brings them all together?? Claire happens to be shopping with her sister when she spots a doll in a window that looks exactly like her daughter Ruby, right down to the pink dress she was wearing when she disappers. No one believes Claire when she descirbes the likeness, and everyone wants her to let it go all ready, including her soon to be ex-husband. Clair's first husband Dave is also back on the scene -asked to investigate the disappearance of the dancer. Now a PI, Dave used to be a cop. Until his daughters kidnapping turned hin into a raging drunk. Now sober, he vows to find the truth. While the murderer of the first stripper and the "dollmaker" are revealed early on, this is more of a story of secrets, lies and finding your way back to the ones you love. While I really enjoyed this book, I didn't find it 'thrilling". Then again -I don't find Silence of the Lambs to be a scary movie either! A-