A missing girl. A broken doll. Dark, deviant secrets.When 15-year-old Beth Ridley vanished on her way to school, it was a mystery that baffled and shocked the small community of Gorey, Jersey. A leg torn from a doll she was carrying was the solitary clue as to what happened that day.Now, on the tenth anniversary of her disappearance, Detective Inspector Graham is taking another look at the case. … look at the case. His Sherlockian tendencies are set alight.
What he finds will rock the town, stirring memories long buried and forgotten. There are painful truths to face.
And what of Beth? Can Graham uncover what happened? Could she still be alive?
The Case of the Broken Doll is a gripping standalone mystery in Alison Golden’s bestselling Inspector David Graham series. With plot twists and turns and characters you’ll grow to love, it’s easy to see why Golden’s books have been described as “captivating,” “unputdownable,” and “shouldn’t be started late at night.”
Buy this book because it’s good.
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“The Case of the Broken Doll” by Alison Golden and Grace Dagnall is a wonderful, fast-paced mystery. Detective Inspector David Graham moves to the town of Gorey in Jersey, Great Britain as the head its small police station. He is baffled when he sees a beautiful doll in the window of every store and at the the inn in which he is living. He finds out that the dolls are displayed because it is the tenth anniversary of the disappearance of Beth Ridley, a fifteen year old girl who was on her way to Gorey Grammar school and just disappeared. She was an excellent student and only missed four days of school before she disappeared. People in the town formed searching parties and spent several days searching for her but she was never found. The only thing found at the place of her disappearance was the leg of the doll she had with her because she intended to have the doll fixed when her school day was finished. When he gets to the police station, he asks to see the file and has to get it from the place it is now stored. It is a very small file with very little information in it. His curiosity and interest in the town and its people makes him want to open the case once more to find out if there was something that was missed ten years ago. Along with Constable Jim Roach who actually went to school with Beth and was her friend and Sergeant Janice Harding who had just come back to the station from a course in computer training. They interview the girl’s mother who tells them she had private detectives looking for Beth for many years but she was never found. They go up to Beth’s room and see Beth’s doll collection with a space reserved for the doll that went missing with her. They also find a journal of animal drawings that Beth had been working on and take the journal back to the police station. They redo the interviews that are in the file and add interviews of other teachers and people who might have known her. They interview her classmate, Susan Miller, who always walked to school with Beth and waited for her that morning until she had to run to school so she would not be late. Readers follow Graham, Roach and Harding in their efforts to learn what happened to Beth. They also get involved with Constable Barnwell as he tries to solve the case of who is robbing things from fishermen’s boats and store in the marina. Readers who love mysteries will become so involved in the search for Beth and the robbers at the marina that they will not be able to put the book down until the cases are solved.
Wonderful story. Unpredictable. Plenty of heroes and villains. Great example of cozy mystery police work I enjoyed it and suspect that you will to.
Based on “The Inspector Graham Mysteries: Books 1-4 (The Inspector David Graham Series Boxset Book 1)” borrowed via Kindle Unlimited on November 16, 2018.
This is a well-written story with plenty of twists and turns. This is a page-turner that I finished in less than 24 hour period. Inspector Graham is a wonderful character he is a complexed character. The secondary characters such as Sergent Harding is another one of my favorite characters. With each new book in the series, the characters are getting more developed and the storylines deeper. Although this is a series each book can be enjoyed as a stand-alone mystery.
I was given this book in hopes I would supply a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own and in no way have been influenced.
The Case Of The Broken Doll – Book 4
The main mystery in this story reminds Inspector Graham too closely of his own personal tragedy (revealed in the first book). Various incidents arise that may or may not be related, and it takes all members of the local constabulary working the various issues to determine the culprits and if related or not.
I have greatly enjoyed every single story in this series, but I felt that this was the most fleshed out of them all. By this point Inspector Graham is becoming more comfortable in his new locale and job site, and that reflects in his confidence with tasking his employees to handle the numerous events which occur during this book. All of the characters contribute to the humor also written into the story – gotta love the Bangkok Palace restaurant staff. LOL. I can’t wait to read the next one!
Reading the previous books in this series is not necessary to enjoy this one, but they will provide additional depth to various comments and situations.