Dollies By Pat Graverson

 

Dollies
By Pat Graverson
1990 Zebra Books
Paperback, 288 pages

                I don’t often step outside of my comfort zone of nature-run-amok novels full of gore and entrails, but every now and then I do, and sometimes I get rewarded. While Dollies might look like a typical Zebra scary brat book, it is much more than that.

 

                Real estate agent and divorcee Kit has a tough house to sell; the Bern’s house is an oddity as are the Bern’s themselves. So are the “beautiful and hideous” dolls that old man Bern collects. After he gifts one of his dollies to Kit’s daughter Jodie, Kit’s life, which was already pretty messed up, starts to unravel even further. Kit can’t seem to get rid of the doll. It keeps turning up. And the Berns will not take it back.

 

                Pat Graverson had a few novels under her belt when she wrote Dollies, and she drew upon her own experience in the real estate business to start this book. She crafts a moving story that never sags, and gives us a solid, believable main character. Kit is flawed but overall, a good person who loves her child and would lay down her life for her. The danger she is in doesn’t deter Kit from trying to unravel the mystery that will inevitably save her daughter.

 

                I gotta say, there are some really creepy moments in this one. This scratching and pitter-patter of little dolly feet from the other side of the closed door caused a frisson or two. Between the dolls, her ex-husband fucking her baby-sitter, the insidious Berns themselves, and dying friends, Kit has a really shitty time of it. But she doesn’t quit. I admire her character.

 

                Stepping outside of my comfort zone worked well with this one. I’ll likely give some more of Graverson’s work a shot. This one was good. It also has a nifty embossed cover sporting some nice Richard Newton art.

Midnight Magazine

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