Emma (SCR)'s Review of Perfect Little Dolls (Detective Eleanor Raven, #2)

by Karen Long

The little boy played with his toy trains in the bedroom, keeping quiet so as not to wake his mother. He stayed silent as he watched his window creaking open and heard the whisper from outside. A minute later, Tommy and the trains were gone.

An unrelenting heatwave sweeps the country and starts a fire which uncovers the charred remains of a young woman. But when DI Eleanor Raven attends the post-mortem it reveals some disturbing details—the girl was dead long before the fire, her body had been lovingly preserved before being dressed up, her hair perfectly arranged, and a lime-green scarf knotted around her neck.

With little evidence surviving the fire, Eleanor and her team have no solid leads. But back on duty after six months’ enforced leave, Eleanor is determined to prove herself fit for service, and she won’t accept that this case could prove impossible.

Following a tenuous link to an old missing-persons case, Eleanor discovers the poor woman’s identity: Giselle Baker was a young dancer at a local bar before she disappeared two years ago, leaving behind a worried roommate and, concealed amongst her things, a curious wooden carving of a snake. Before Eleanor can uncover the significance of the toy though, another woman goes missing, and then, a little boy… It seems that someone is collecting a family for themselves.

As Eleanor battles her own demons, she pushes herself to the limit to find the killer. But her fight to save his last innocent victim may become a battle to save herself…

A totally gripping, fast-paced mystery thriller that will leave your jaw on the floor. The next rollercoaster read for fans of Lisa Regan, Angela Marsons and Robert Dugoni.

Perfect Little Dolls was previously published as The Vault.

This review was originally posted on Star Crossed Reviews I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you to Bookouture for my copy of this book via Netgalley and for letting me take part in this tour. I enjoyed the first book in this series so I was excited to see what happened next to DI Raven.

As in the first book, Eleanor makes no apologies for who she is. She also, it appears, hasn't learnt from her mistakes. She is still not trusting her partner and she is still running off on her and getting herself in danger. She is still recovering from the trauma of what happened in the first book and her past. Eleanor is one of those people that hold everything in and the guilt is starting to consume her.

I think Eleanor and Laurence grow as a partnership in this book which was nice to see.

The case itself was creepy AF. The story was told from both Eleanor and the perps perspectives. This case was more of a how is she going to catch him than a whodunnit. It seemed that there were no connections to the victims at first.

This book is not action, action, action. It's all about the details, the evidence gathering and thinking outside the box. It really kept my attention and was very easy to read. I look forward to reading the third book in this series soon.

Perfect Little Dolls (Detective Eleanor Raven, #2)

by Karen Long

Reviewed by Emma (SCR) on Jan 25, 2021

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