An intriguing and creative debut novel with dueling timelines of “sad girls on campus” twenty years ago and another timeline of today.
Sadie has a baby and lives with her child’s father, Harrison. Harrison is recently widowed by Sadie’s former childhood friend, Nikki. So, Sadie and Nikki were estranged and never spoke for 20 years. Nikki dies, seemingly of suicide, and Sadie sits in the back at her funeral. 9 months later we skip and Sadie is living with her widow and has a baby with him.
If this seems weird and a bit unbelievable, you aren’t alone in that thought!
We side with Sadie and see things from her perspective. We don’t love Harrison, we aren’t sure about Caroline, who is Nikki and Harrison’s teen daughter.
Both mysteries are good, the past one is better, it is clever to be following two mysteries in different timelines because it gets away from the typical criticism of slow burn mysteries as that it can drag in the middle.
Why is it called Doll Parts? No idea! I do love the cover, though.
My favorite character was Nikki, the past segments are in her view point.
Lots of open ended things with no conclusion, but it works. I liked this and found i very readable, some of the minor characters didn’t have enough characterization so I didn’t know them as well. I did love the setting and the writing style.
A fresh new voice in women centered mystery/thrillers!
Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks/Landmark for the ARC. Book to be published August 26, 2025.
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