Special Offer

Download for Free with
Audible.co.uk 30-day free trial

Audio downloads available at

Listen anytime, anywhere with our FREE Audible apps for Android, iPhone
and Windows Phone.

See larger image

Share your own customer images

The House of Dolls (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

by David Hewson (Author), Saul Reichlin (Narrator)

3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

List Price:	�20.89 (Prices include VAT)
Price:	�18.28, or Free with Audible.co.uk 30-day free trial membership
You Save:	�2.61 (12%)
	All prices include VAT

At Audible.co.uk, you can download any of 100,000 audiobooks and more, and listen on your Kindle� tablet, iPhone^®, iPod^® or Android�.
Your Audible.co.uk 30-day free trial membership includes:

This audiobook free, or any other Audible audiobook of your choice
Members-only sales and promotions
Total flexibility - cancel, pause or upgrade your membership easily and whenever you like

Read the customer ratings and reviews at Audible.co.uk for The House of Dolls (Unabridged) (audiobook).

	Amazon Price		New from	Used from
Kindle Edition	�5.99		--	--
Hardcover	�10.74		--	--
Paperback	�7.04		--	--
Show # more paperbacks
Show fewer paperbacks
Audio Download, Unabridged	�18.28	or Free with Audible.co.uk 30-day free trial

Product details

Audio Download
Listening Length: 12 hours and 33 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks
Audible.co.uk Release Date: 10 April 2014
Language: English
ASIN: B00JA3DCF8

Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

Would you like to give feedback on images?

Product Description

Anneliese Vos, 16-year-old daughter of detective Pieter Vos, disappeared three years ago. Her father's desperate search revealed nothing. One day, Laura Bakker, a trainee detective, visits to tell him that the daughter of local politician, Katja Prins, has gone missing in circumstances similar to Anneliese. Vos is drawn back into the life of a detective, hoping that somewhere will be a clue to his daughter�s fate�.

Tag this product

(What's this?)

Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items.

Customer Reviews

1 star

3.8 out of 5 stars

13 reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars

Write a customer review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping page turner 29 Mar 2014

By Mrs. T. SALMON TOP 1000 REVIEWER VINE VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Vine Customer Review of Free Product (What's this?)

.Fantastic book, well defined and compelling characters, a real can't put down book. Think you know who dunit , think again. I will not write out the plot, this book is like an onion peel back the layers and discover yet more layers. Enjoy

Comment |

Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A good read. 18 Mar 2014

By bookworm8 VINE VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Vine Customer Review of Free Product (What's this?)

I took this with me on a coach trip and it kept me interested and intrigued all the way there. I was almost tempted to stay on the coach and read instead of alighting with the rest of the party and 'doing the visit' we'd spent so long travelling to see. I resisted the temptation but was so pleased on the way home to be able to continue reading. There are parallels with other crime fiction but that does not detract from the twists and turns of the plot and the faiings/positive attributes of the main character.
Well worth a read.

Comment |

Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Conventional and workmanlike..... 29 Mar 2014

By Wynne Kelly TOP 1000 REVIEWER VINE VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Vine Customer Review of Free Product (What's this?)

The House of Dolls is a very readable and enjoyable police procedural crime novel. Pieter Vos has retired from his job as an Amsterdam detective following the disappearance of his daughter three years previously. He is haunted by the idea that some clue was missed and that somehow he has let her down. When the daughter of a local politician disappears in similar circumstances Pieter finds himself drawn back into the investigation. The plot moves along at a cracking pace and the descriptions of Amsterdam are vivid. Pieter is particularly perturbed by the way the criminal fraternity of the city is changing. The ordinary decent Amsterdam criminals followed a set code but the newer (often immigrant) gangsters are carving out their own unpredictable world.

David Hewson (who wrote the book version of The Killing) obviously has very good writing credentials. The words I would use to describe The House of Dolls are conventional and workmanlike. Because there is just so must of this type of literature around it is becoming increasingly difficult to produce something really fresh. It is a somewhat formulaic – there is a policeman with “issues”. He tends not to follow all the required protocol and has difficult relations with his ex-partner.

This feels as if it has been written with a TV series in mind. The chapters are short and read like scenes in a drama.
So, not especially original, but nonetheless a very entertaining read.

Comment |

Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars More of the same but done well? 15 Mar 2014

By Phill Lister VINE VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Vine Customer Review of Free Product (What's this?)

Hewson’s reworkings of “The Killing” and “The Killing II” were successful translations of the TV stories into the novel form. He already had rich material to work with and gave it further depth and characterisation.

The combination of political intrigue and sleuthing – always already present in his own works – seems to have been heightened by his work on these two novelisations.

In “The House of Dolls” he continues this approach with a new set of characters and a new locale – this time Amsterdam and the intriguing new detective Pieter Vos. I don’t know Amsterdam so have no idea how well he represents it but it feels authentic. Hewson is known for his ability to bring his locations to life (which is one reason he was chosen for the adaptations of the TV series)

Vos is getting by in his retirement, which we find was caused by his mental and marital breakdown after his own daughter was kidnapped, a crime which remains unsolved. He’s brought back from retirement by another kidnapping of senior politician’s daughter, in what seems to be a taunt and a challenge to him personally. He reluctantly agrees to help his ex-colleagues and gets drawn back into his nightmare.

As with The Killing series, it’s the politics and intrigue on both sides of the law which drive this story, as well as the idiosyncratic characters. But hasn’t this all been done before by now? Is there a danger that Scandi-Noir has become formulaic?

In the end I was drawn along by Hewson’s storytelling, especially in later chapters. He throws in some nice cliffhangers and twists that are resolved with panache.

Comment |

Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as some of his earlier books 12 Mar 2014

By Henk Beentje TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Vine Customer Review of Free Product (What's this?)

Amsterdam detective has lost a daughter in mysterious circumstances, and has withdrawn from the police force to drown his sorrows in booze and dope - until he is called back when another young girl has disappeared under the same circumstances. Together with a rookie from the provinces he delves into the mystery, but his unusual methods do not appeal to senior management...

My opinion: pretty feeble compared to some of his earlier books, which I really liked (Death in Seville, the Garden of Evil) both for their local colour and the good story. This House of Dolls comes over as if written by numbers, maybe to be translated for a TV series? Clipped sentences, feeble characterization - depending on stereotypes from other series, probably. This makes for a pretty boring book. It is not predictable, there are too many twists and turns for that, but I never warmed to the characters - the ones that I could remember, that is. As for local colour, I used to live on a houseboat in Amsterdam (as the main character in this book does) and I found a lot of little details that were wrong (lime trees don't drop their seed in spring, no local calls the Prinsengracht 'Prinsen', Friesians are not thought of as country hicks; and aircraft doors are not fifteen metres from the ground, either).
Two-and-a-half stars.

Comment |

Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

› See all 13 customer reviews (newest first)

Write a customer review

Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Good read from the ever reliable Hewson

In 'The House of Dolls', ex-Amsterdam detective Peter Vos is living on an old houseboat and still haunted by the disappearance of his daughter three years previously. Read more

Published 9 hours ago by G. J. Oxley

4.0 out of 5 stars More European Crime - Amsterdam this time

There is no sign of the Euro-crime band wagon slowing down and this new novel by David Hewson (who wrote the novels based on the acclaimed TV series "The Killing" is... Read more

Published 2 days ago by joc66