She Treads Softly: Little Lost Dolls

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Little Lost Dolls

Little Lost Dolls by M.M. Chouinard
5/4/23; 326 pages
Bookouture
Detective Jo Fournier #7

Little Lost Dolls by M.M. Chouinard is a very highly recommended procedural/crime fiction.

Detective Jo Fournier is called because Madison Coehlo, a young pregnant woman, is missing. She learns where the woman's dog was found, in Crone Ridge Woods, and the search there discloses the woman's body. In her hand is a tiny baby from a king cake, but how does this tie into the murder. It becomes obvious that it does when a second pregnant woman is found with the same plastic baby in her hand. Is a serial killer targeting pregnant women?

This is an excellent installment of the Jo Fournier series which can be read as a standalone novel. Every step of the investigation and the clues uncovered is disclose. Jo is a great detective, detail oriented and careful as she investigates her cases. Each complicated case is full of drama and complications, along with twists and surprises. There are plenty of suspects along the way and expect twists and surprises.

At this point Jo is a fully realized character, but new comers to the series can still follow along and appreciate her cases as enough background information is provided. The writing is excellent and the pacing is fast and furious as the pressure builds during the investigation.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Bookouture via NetGalley.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.