The Doll's House [Mass Market Paperback]

Evelyn Anthony (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1993

Rosa Bennett, a rising star in the Foreign Service, takes up residence in the Doll's House, a luxury hotel in the English countryside, in order to investigate the actions of former spy Harry Oakham, the hotel's new manager. Reprint. K.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her latest romantic thriller, set in present-day England, the prolific Anthony ( The Assassin ; The Relic ) brings together the seemingly opposed objectives and personalities of Rosa Bennett and Harry Oakham. Oakham, a career intelligence officer who is bitter over being forced into retirement, has gathered the world's most cold-blooded ex-spies (all lacking a place in the post-Communist world order) to apply their talents for international terrorism and murder-for-hire. Their base is a quaint country inn, the Doll's House Manor. Rosa, recently divorced, is sent there on her first spying mission to discover what Oakham is up to. When Rosa and Oakham fall in love, none of their plans proceeds as expected. Rosa drops her guard and Oakham, with long-dormant emotions newly awakened, must question his true motives and desires. When his group'bungles its first job, they must race against time to see whose secrets will be discovered first. While fast-paced and entertaining, the novel is flawed by characters who switch allegiances and emotions at an implausibly quick rate, and by plot twists that often lack explanation and yield no suspense.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Anthony's 32nd romantic thriller has all the key elements of the genre but misses the mark. Rosa, an attractive, successful career diplomat recently recruited as a spy, finds herself in over her head on her first mission when she is sent to spy on a group of retired spooks who have set up a school to train terrorists. Harry, a brilliant and equally attractive ex-spy, leads this disenchanted gang. The premise is plausible, as is the idea that a bunch of master spies put out to pasture could plan and execute terrorist actions for big bucks. But the ineptness of Anthony's little group makes the reader wonder whether their retirements were warranted. Most libraries can skip.
- Sue Mevis, Ludlow Memorial Lib., Monroe, Wis.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Harpercollins (Mm); Second Edition edition (December 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061091073
• ISBN-13: 978-0061091070
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 3.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,049,473 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable spy thriller, April 23, 2006

By 

HORAK (Zug, Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Doll's House (Mass Market Paperback)

Harry Oakham worked as a middle-grade Civil Servant for twenty-eight years. His dismissal from the Service at fifty-two was due to the end of the Cold War. Strongly embittered, he ventures upon setting up training facilities for Lybian terrorists and the IRA at a red-brick Tudor mansion called Doll's House Manor Hotel. Harry recruits several people for the job: Hermann Rilke, former head of the East German Security, Vassily Zarubin, a KGB tactician, Monika Van Heflin, member of the Red Brigade, Georg Werner and others.
But operations won't run as smoothly as Harry Oakham wishes them to...

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars No One Wants To Live In A Doll's House., August 2, 2005

By 

Betty Burks "Betty Burks" (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Doll's House (Hardcover)

Henrik Ibsen wrote a play, A DOLL HOUSE in which the central character, Nora, rejects a marriage and life in "a doll's house." He wrote masterfully about women's rights; HEDDA GABLER was another of his strong-willed female characters. Did she or did she not shoot her husband? Or did he kill himself? It's all in the game.

Evelyn Anthony of England calls her novel about international terrorism THE DOLL'S HOUSE. "They call it the Doll's House, this idyllic country estate, acres of lawn, fine dining, and -- at the top of a sweeping staircase -- an antique child's playhouse built into the wall. But something is wrong at the Doll's House what with odd acres being off-limits to guests of the manor. Is the Doll's House the swank hotel it seems, or is it something very different, even sinister?"

Harry Oakham has been put out to pasture in the spy business so he sets up a school to train terrorists in a lovely old hotel called the Doll's House Manor. There Rosa finds former Polish, German, and Russian spies teaching others how to be assassins. There she finds the love of her life -- for one day and night-- Mr. Harry Oakham.

Evelyn Anthony also wrote SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY which was made into a movie starring the 'Pretty Woman' Julia Roberts. It was about spies and cruelty, too.