Baby Doll Games (Sigrid Harald Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Margaret Maron (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2006 | Series: Sigrid Harald Mysteries

The new novel featuring homicide detective Sigrid Harald When a shadowy figure kills a dancer in a little Greenwich Village theatre before an audience of horrified children, Sigrid is outraged. Her instincts tell her it was a crime of passion, but she has no evidence. To find out the truth she uses special dolls to get the children to talk about what happened that fateful night ? for the solution of the crimes lies in what an innocent child witnessed.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

MARGARET MARON grew up on a farm near Raleigh, North Carolina, but for many years lived in Brooklyn, New York. When she returned to her North Carolina roots with her artist-husband, Joe, she bagan a series based on her own background. The first book, BOOTLEGGER'S DAUGHTER, because a Washington Post bestseller that swept the top mystery awards for its year and is among the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century as selected by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. Later Deborah Knott novels UP JUMPS THE DEVIL and STORM TRACK won the Agatha award for Best Novel.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 213 pages
• Publisher: Severn House Publishers (May 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0727862790
• ISBN-13: 978-0727862792
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,337,480 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

MARGARET MARON is the author of twenty-seven novels and two collections of short stories. Winner of several major American awards for mysteries (Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, Macavity), her works are on the reading lists of various courses in contemporary Southern literature and have been translated into 15 languages. She has served as president of Sisters in Crime, the American Crime Writers League, and Mystery Writers of America. Visit her at www.MargaretMaron.com.

A native Tar Heel, she still lives on her family's century farm a few miles southeast of Raleigh, the setting for Bootlegger's Daughter, which is numbered among the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century as selected by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. In 2004, she received the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for best North Carolina novel of the year; and in 2008, the North Carolina Award for Literature, the state's highest civilian honor. Her mystery novels feature District Court Judge Deborah Knott and are the pegs upon which she hangs her love and concern for the state.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes, you get a yen to go back and reread..., July 22, 2001

By 

L. Quido "quidrock" (Tampa, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baby Doll Games (Mass Market Paperback)

titles or series you've enjoyed. I've had just such a wish with Margaret Maron's first series, the Sigrid Harald "cop" series, set in New York City. Sigrid's a bit of a loner, who starts to find her true self after she makes Lieutenant in a midtown squad. The first 4 books in the series are all worth reading (Start with "One Coffee With", "Death of a Butterfly", "Death in Blue Folders" and "The Right Jack") and lead up to "Baby Doll Games", in which Maron uses the literary trick of slipping inside a minor character's part (the child psychologist) to give the reader some thought-provoking clues as to how the story will end. The major theme, the death of a compelling young dancer, will hold your interest, but it is the minor mystery, about two youngsters, that provides the incredible plot twist and ending. This book also dives in more thoroughly to the totally goofy Roman Tramegra, who gives Harald's asetic home life some warmth and style. Possibly the best book in this series, although my personal favorite comes along in 7th position..."Past Imperfect". Maron delivers no matter if her heroine is Harald, or the decidedly more feminine Deborah Knotts. Enjoy!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best in the Sigrid Harald series, December 25, 2000

By 

Elizabeth B. Daykin "eabone" (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baby Doll Games (Mass Market Paperback)

Margaret Maron is not the greatest mystery writer of our day, but this is her best. She masterfully describes the incredible murder and twists in a side plot that's brilliant (although slightly predictable). If you buy only one Margaret Maron mystery (which I recommend), buy this one or "The Right Jack."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sad Story, February 23, 2011

By 

Karen in OR (Oregon City, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baby Doll Games (Sigrid Harald Mysteries) (Hardcover)

As a preface to any review of the Sigrid Harald series, I think it only right to include the author's note from the final book "Fugitive Colors".

"Lieutenant Sigrid Harald, NYPD first appeared in... "One Coffee With" in 1981. "Fugitive Colors" is her eighth adventure, with each book set in what was - and is - the current "now."

"One Coffee With" began on a blue-sky sunny April day. Spring gave way to summer, then autumn in New York, followed by Christmas and one of the worst Februarys in the city's memory (in Sigrid's memory, too, unfortunately)

For the author, fourteen years have passed. For Sigrid Harald herself, no matter how much internal evidence alert readers may cite to the contrary, it has been only one short tumultuous year.

And now it is spring again. . . "

As mentioned, this jewel of a character study spans the course of eight full length novels plus two short stories, one, "Lieutenant Harald And the `Treasure Island' Treasure" was originally published in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and the other, "Lieutenant Harald And The Impossible Gun" first appeared in Marilyn Wallace's fourth anthology. Both can be found in Margaret Maron's short story anthology "Shoveling Smoke".

As other reviewers have noted, these stories must be read in the correct order to fully understand the amazing transformation Sigrid goes through in the span of a short year, both internally and externally. And yet, all of the books can stand alone as well-plotted mysteries. This is the mark of Maron's true genius.

"Baby Doll Games" (1988) - On Halloween at a matinee ballet performance, a shadowy figure kills a dancer in a little Greenwich Village theatre before an audience of horrified children. Sigrid is outraged. Her instincts tell her it was a crime of passion, but she has no evidence. She does, however, have a source of inside information. Her roommate, Roman Tramegra, had been acting as scenarist for the company's production of a new ballet `Ghosties and Ghouls'. This has enabled him to observe the interactions of the troop for several months. Will this be enough to enable Sigrid to figure out what has really been going on that was worth killing to cover up?

Sigrid continues to have her personal life push at the boundaries she would like to set for it. One of the witnesses in the audience turns out to be an old schoolmate of Sigrid's and has her own agenda when it comes to renewing the acquaintance. Another question is why has her boss, Captain McKinnon, specialized in Detective Second Grade Michael Cluett (who is pushing sixty if a day) from Brooklyn to help cover her department's temporary depletion of manpower. Detective Tildon is not expected to return to work before January. But why Cluett, who is so obviously just counting down the weeks until retirement? And Nauman is now ready to take their relationship to the next level. Is Sigrid?

This is another morally ambiguous murder mystery that Margaret Maron excels at; one is left with a profound sadness at the end of the book, knowing that a single decision could have kept things from becoming this dire.