Baby Doll Games    by Margaret Maron Order:  USA  Can Warner, 1995 (1988) Paperback    Reviewed by Sally Selvadurai Baby Doll Games was not what I'd wanted at some subconscious level. As a young child I loved to read books about ballet dancers (usually the talented misunderstood type) very geared to the pre-adolescent audience. This book was a total shock! Here we had a troupe of dancers who were promiscuous, jealous (well, that's not uncommon in the artistic community, is it?) and generally rather unforgiving characters. A dancer is bumped off in the first few pages of the book, killed while performing for an audience of children. During the course of the narrative we learn that she was a somewhat bipolar person, a neat freak in her business dealings but a creative, messy nymphomaniac otherwise. Hardly a credible character. The antagonists are themselves truly difficult to understand - the jealous lovers, homo and heterosexual and the married couple with their own deep problems. The investigator, NYPD homicide detective Sigrid Harald, is herself rather an icy woman. And the psychologist, who helps her, somehow never fits into the plot, but just revolves around on the periphery interrupting the action once in a while. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Mystery books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews