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Ragdoll by Daniel Cole
Nov. 16th, 2016 11:02 pmThe Blurb On The Back:
The nation is gripped by the infamous “Ragdoll Killer”.
Every news bulletin and headline is obsessed with this story.
Your friends, your neighbours and colleagues are all talking about it …
One body. Six victims …
A body is discovered with the dismembered parts of six victims stitched together like a puppet, nicknamed by the press as a ‘ragdoll’.
Assigned to the shocking case are Detective Fawkes, recently reinstated to the London Met, and his former partner Detective Baxter.
The ‘Ragdoll Killer’ taunts the police by releasing a list of names to the media, and the dates on which he intends to murder them.
With six people to save, can Fawkes and Baxter catch a killer when the world is watching their every move?
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
If you can get through the first chapter of Daniel Cole’s debut novel without throwing the book against a wall, then you’ll probably enjoy this ludicrous thriller that doesn’t leave any cliché unturned, has no concept of how the legal system, police or media works and revolves around an emotionally unstable protagonist who’s an utter pig to those around him and incompetent police officers who pander to his whims. Although Cole’s got a gift for describing places (London’s geography is well drawn), there’s a lot of inter-scene head hopping and a key twist relies on the scenes from Wolf’s point of view deliberately not revealing key information. The female characters are shallowly characterised – particularly Wolf’s ex-wife and stereotypical ambitious journalist, Andrea, although Baxter doesn’t fair much better (and naturally they both love him. The humour falls flat, the murders are ridiculously contrived and Wolf such an unprofessional head case that I found myself rooting for the two-dimensional killer. There were so many mistakes that I literally stopped counting and the lack of any grounding in reality meant I really couldn’t get into it at all. The open ending raises the possibility of a sequel but I definitely won’t be reading on.
RAGDOLL will be released in the United Kingdom on 23rd February 2017. Thanks to Hachette for the ARC of this book.
Every news bulletin and headline is obsessed with this story.
Your friends, your neighbours and colleagues are all talking about it …
One body. Six victims …
A body is discovered with the dismembered parts of six victims stitched together like a puppet, nicknamed by the press as a ‘ragdoll’.
Assigned to the shocking case are Detective Fawkes, recently reinstated to the London Met, and his former partner Detective Baxter.
The ‘Ragdoll Killer’ taunts the police by releasing a list of names to the media, and the dates on which he intends to murder them.
With six people to save, can Fawkes and Baxter catch a killer when the world is watching their every move?
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
If you can get through the first chapter of Daniel Cole’s debut novel without throwing the book against a wall, then you’ll probably enjoy this ludicrous thriller that doesn’t leave any cliché unturned, has no concept of how the legal system, police or media works and revolves around an emotionally unstable protagonist who’s an utter pig to those around him and incompetent police officers who pander to his whims. Although Cole’s got a gift for describing places (London’s geography is well drawn), there’s a lot of inter-scene head hopping and a key twist relies on the scenes from Wolf’s point of view deliberately not revealing key information. The female characters are shallowly characterised – particularly Wolf’s ex-wife and stereotypical ambitious journalist, Andrea, although Baxter doesn’t fair much better (and naturally they both love him. The humour falls flat, the murders are ridiculously contrived and Wolf such an unprofessional head case that I found myself rooting for the two-dimensional killer. There were so many mistakes that I literally stopped counting and the lack of any grounding in reality meant I really couldn’t get into it at all. The open ending raises the possibility of a sequel but I definitely won’t be reading on.
RAGDOLL will be released in the United Kingdom on 23rd February 2017. Thanks to Hachette for the ARC of this book.
