Doll's Eyes [Hardcover]

Bari Wood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1993

Eve Tilden Klein, a scion of an upstanding Connecticut family, finds that the clairvoyance she has inherited from her mother is more a curse than a blessing. 75,000 first printing. $60,000 ad/promo.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This latest from the author of Twins is a nerve-snapping, stomach-churning thriller. Wealthy Eve Klein has the unenviable ability to see the future when she touches people or even something associated with them. Although her unusual gift occasionally comes in handy, it has also driven away her husband, who doesn't want to live in a psychic fishbowl. Hoping for a reconciliation, she follows him to a lakeside bungalow in the Adirondacks where a small boy was tortured decades earlier. Now grown, the one-time victim tracks down women, mutilating and killing them. At first, all Eve can see of him is light brown hair and tassled loafers near a puddle of blood, but as a local cop insists that she use her power, the killer's dead, brown eyes begin to haunt her visions, and it becomes clear he's hunting for her, too. Despite a spate of foolish set-ups that a child of six would know enough to avoid, Wood's page-turner nurtures a creeping dread that blooms into fully realized fears. Toward the end, Eve becomes a horrific Scheherazade, spilling dark, pain-filled secrets the killer's psyche has locked away for good reason. Literary Guild alternate .
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-Having clairvoyant powers is more of a curse than a blessing for Eve Tilden Dodd Klein, daughter of rich Connecticut parents and wife of Sam Klein. Her powers have alienated her from her husband, and, hoping for a reconciliation, she makes a trip to his cabin retreat in the Adirondacks. Upon her arrival, Eve has a vision of a murder so grotesque that she immediately calls the police. Her description is so accurate that she is momentarily considered to be a suspect. Charming lieutenant Dave Latovsky teams up with Eve to unravel the link between multiple related murders. Their intervention alerts the killer, who then stalks Eve as his next and final victim, a fact that she has psychically forseen. Doll's Eyes is not a book to be read while home alone or after dark. Wood tells a tale of horror so riveting that readers will be both repulsed and mesmerized. Any "splatter punk" fan will find a new favorite in this author.
Katherine Fitch, Lake Braddock Secondary School, Burke, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 303 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (July 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688124402
• ISBN-13: 978-0688124403
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,017,422 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deep and Involving, November 13, 2000

By 

Michael Butts (Berkeley Springs, WV USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Doll's Eyes (Paperback)

I was prompted to read "Doll's Eyes" after seeing the movie, "In Dreams," which was supposedly based on the book. Well, other than having a psychic heroine, there is very little resemblance between the movie and the book. The movie was good on its own, but I think the book is a little more involving and coherent.

We meet Eve Stein who has been "blessed" or "cursed" with psychic abilities. While visiting her estranged husband at his new lakeside residence, she touches a swing and flashes on a vision of a woman being killed nearby. We learn the killer's identity early and he is certainly a cold, heartless murderer.

Eve tells her vision to a local cop, Dave Levotsky, an almost local legendary detective, who doesn't believe her until she touches him and tells him things about himself that no one could possibly know.

From thereon, Wood takes us on a deep, disturbing journey as the killer learns of the psychic's ability and does everything he can to find her and kill her --- but not before he forces her to reveal what horrible thing happened in his childhood that left him with serious physical and mental scars.

While I usually dislike writers who try to justify their villains' heinous crimes and make you feel sorry for them, Wood pulls this one off nicely. Adam Fuller DID have a horrible childhood and one can certainly see why he feels compelled to murder.

The final confrontation between Adam and Eve (ha!) in the cemetery is chilling and even touching. However, I was kind of disturbed at Eve's sudden "sympathy" for the man who was going to kill her, but the open-ended ending lets you know that things will work out for Eve.

A good solid thriller and highly recommended. Watch "In Dreams" too even though it's nothing like the book!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A page turner thriller, July 20, 2000

By 

K. Lininger (FOUNTAIN VALLEY, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Doll's Eyes (Paperback)

This is the first book I have read by Bari Wood. And it will not be the last. Even though you know who the killer is from the start. You are still sitting on the edge of your seat. Ms Wood has a way with words to strike that chilling nerve in the back of your neck. While reading this book I kept checking to make sure I was alone. The characters had a lot of depth and were very believable. Great job.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Achingly disturbing...get ready for the ride of your life., October 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Doll's Eyes (Paperback)

I really enjoyed Doll's Eyes because it took me into the mind of a psychopathic serial killer. I appreciated the fact that it isn't a one-sided story that depicts the killer as pure evil. Instead, Wood takes us back to the killer's childhood, where we find out that he was both physically and sexually abused by his mother. To one's almost-disbelief, it forces the reader to find sympathy for the supposedly cold-blooded murderer. There is no black or white in Doll's Eyes, just shades of grey. This is why I found Doll's Eyes to be such a fascinating novel. One I just couldn't put down. If you're a fan of psycho-horror thrillers, then get ready to put Doll's Eyes on your list of favorites.