Review: Ragdoll (Detective William Fawkes #1) by Daniel Cole

Synopsis from Good Reads:

A body is discovered with the dismembered parts of six victims stitched together like a puppet, nicknamed by the press as the ‘ragdoll’.

Assigned to the shocking case are Detective William ‘Wolf’ Fawkes, recently reinstated to the London Met, and his former partner Detective Emily Baxter.

The ‘Ragdoll Killer’ taunts the police by releasing a list of names to the media, and the dates on which he intends to murder them.

With six people to save, can Fawkes and Baxter catch a killer when the world is watching their every move?

I read a couple of outstanding reviews for Ragdoll that gave me very high expectations and I am very happy to say that the book definitely lived up to them! I loved pretty much every second of reading this book.

The concept was definitely interesting and twisted. A corpse comprised of body parts from six different people is found. Then a letter is delivered with a list of six more future victims – and the date on which they will die. It was really fascinating to watch the case unfold and figure out who the body parts belonged to and how they all connect to each other and to the possible future victims. They reason behind it all was a great development, too.

I loved the characters. They weren’t always lovable, sometimes they were more love-to-hate, but I enjoyed reading about all of them. William Oliver Layton-Fawkes (Wolf) was such a wonderfully complicated character. I loved his determination and stubbornness and his sense of humor. Baxter was mostly of the love-to-hate variety for me, but she was also kind of complicated and interesting. I loved, loved, loved Edmunds! He was really smart and kind and had a bit of the wide-eyed innocent thing going on so it was even more interesting to see how he evolves as the case goes on. I adored him.

I thought the writing was really great, too. I was surprised this is Cole’s debut book. The writing is smart and surprising and it did not rely on big twists for shock value (nothing against big twists – I love them – but it’s nice to see a mystery not have to need them). It had a few smaller, clever twists and turns, but none of them felt out of left field. There was also a lot of humor in this book that I was not expecting at all. I felt like it was a little more prominent in the beginning of the book than the end, but it was kind of wry and irreverent and I loved it.

Overall, I just loved Ragdoll. I loved the story, characters, and writing. The only thing that I didn’t love quite as much as the rest of it was the ending. I would have liked an epilogue. However, this is going to be a series so I can forgive it for not having one. It ended in such a way that I have no idea how the next book will go, but I can’t wait to find out! Daniel Cole has definitely made his way on to my favorite authors list and I really recommend this to mystery lovers.

Overall Rating (out of 5): 4.5 Stars