Ed McBain’s Doll is absolutely one of the best in the 87th Precinct series. The opening scene of a woman being slashed to death, while her little girl sits in the next room comforting her doll, is both harrowing and gritty, setting a somewhat darker tone for this entry than many in the series. As with all the 87th Precinct novels, especially the better ones, there is a lot more going on here than the murder and the investigation.

This one follows the death of someone in a previous entry, and Kling is so messed up over it he’s about to be booted off the squad. When Carella catches the call of the murder of model Tina Sachs, he requests Kling, hoping he can rehabilitate him and return him to the cop he was before Claire’s death. Fat chance. Kling is surly and cares little about interviewing skills.

When Carella and Kling finally have a blow-up, Carella waffles on bringing someone else with him to check out a lead on the case. Carella decides to go it alone, and next thing you know, his charred body is discovered. It’s up to the grieving boys of the 87th to retrace Carella’s steps, and make sense of how he ended up dead. Kling’s blow-up with Carella, of course, gets plenty of play, since his taking off early ended up with Carella being murdered.

I’m not marking this as a spoiler, but if you've never read the series, or don't know anything about it, you might want to skip this paragraph and drop down to the next. Frankly, especially after all these years, everybody knows Carella is a mainstay of the 87th throughout the entire series, so obviously he isn’t dead. When the boys discover he went back to the crime scene and exited carrying a child’s doll, it makes no sense. Until the violent and shocking end. Before we get there, McBain creates a sadistic femme fatale as memorable and nasty as any in fiction. She makes Ann Savage in Detour look like Doris Day singing in the streets.

This is an absolute pleasure for anyone who enjoys this series. An ex-husband who won’t reveal a secret about the slain model, a man nicknamed Cyclops, and ultimately, a child’s doll, all figure into this one. McBain was a terrific writer and here he is hitting on all cylinders. Gritty, violent and intelligent, an 87th Precinct story you don’t want to miss. ( )

I remembered the denouement of this one going into it, but it’s still a really great read. Fast paced with a great conclusion and a nice twist. It’s maybe a bit short on punchy dialogue, but other than that it’s a very solid entry in the series. ( )

“In the bedroom next door, her mother was being murdered.”

Then, investigating that murder, Steve Carella gets taken hostage, and it’s set up to appear that he’s dead (poor Teddy…). And Bert Kling is still torn up about his girlfriend's, Claire Townsend, death (in book #14). And now Carella's too. It's a really good story, tense and violent. My only problem is - how many times is poor Carella going to be knocked out in this series? It seems like he's definitely taken a blow or two in at least half of the twenty so far! C'mon - give the poor guy a break! ( )

One of the better 87th Street Precinct novels. A model is slashed to death, with her five year old daughter in the next room. A one-eyed elevator operator describes the perpetrator to Detectives Steve Carella and Bert Kling, but Bert is nasty when the agency owner seems to match the description causing a rift with Steve, who then solves the mystery on his own, only to have the murderer get the upperhand and leave Steve in mortal peril. When a dead body is found badly burned in Carella's car, everyone assumes the worst, but Detective Meyer Meyer and Bert Kling working separate leads arrive in time to save the day. Superb title with multiple meanings in the story. ( )

model killed by drug using friend, daughter's Chatty Cathy doll record, Carella nearly killed