Ragdoll
by Daniel Cole
(Edited) Blurb:
William Fawkes, a controversial detective known as The Wolf, has just been reinstated to his post after he was suspended for assaulting a vindicated suspect. Still under close scrutiny, he's called to investigate a gruesome discovery dubbed "The Ragdoll"—a body made of the dismembered parts of six victims.
Further complicating matters, Fawkes' reporter ex-wife has anonymously received photographs from the crime scene, along with a list of six names and the dates on which the Ragdoll Killer plans to murder them. The final name on the list is Fawkes.
Wolf and his fellow detectives are faced with a daunting challenge and a looming deadline ticking away the rapidly dwindling hours of his life.
My Reaction:
Hm. This one had a disappointingly "blah" conclusion. I started out feeling ambivalent, then decided to stick with it, because there was just enough entertainment value to keep me reading. Also, there were so many glowing reviews that I thought maybe it would surprise me... It was okay for a while—not amazing, but readable—and I was holding out hope for some insane twist. (I even had a couple of pet theories that came to nothing.) Unfortunately, the end of the book (and specifically the identity of the killer) failed to impress.
I was able to overlook the predictable, two-dimensional characters and the many, many cliches while I still held out hope for an interesting reveal and wrap-up, but as soon as the killer was unmasked (which in my opinion came too early in the book, extinguishing all interest), it was all downhill from there! I sort of skimmed from that point on, because I just didn't care what else happened.
For much of the book, the killer is portrayed as possessing an almost supernatural intelligence and ability to predict behavior, but when you finally meet the mastermind, it's a massive let-down. I didn't believe that he could have arranged and divined all of that and then turn out to be so terribly incompetent at the end. He was just... boringly predictable and cliched. Exactly like the other cardboard characters (so I shouldn't have been surprised, really).
There are more books in this series, but I'm not interested. I guess this is a three-star book for me, but I almost feel that 3 stars paints too positive a reaction, based on how I feel after having just finished the book.
