The Broken Doll

A sociopath cuts a path of destruction across the rural Midwest. In pursuit: a vigilante detective and a prosecutor, one bent on revenge, the other on virtue. And in the wrong place at the wrong time: a doctor in a life-and-death moral struggle. Barreling toward justice, their fates converge in these four interlocking short stories of cunning misdirection by internationally bestselling author Jeffery Deaver.

One is Paul Offenbach, a sadistic crime boss with a life-threatening bullet wound. The other is his hostage, Dr. Stuart Collier, now faced with a harrowing ethical quandary. Mile by mile, as a calculated battle of wills and wits plays out, the killer plots his next move. So does the doctor, sworn to do no harm but desperate to escape.

A robbery goes awry. A female deputy is tortured and murdered. The killer, hiding in plain sight, has officials in rural Wisconsin under his thumb—except for Special Agent Constant Marlowe, on an unsanctioned mission to avenge her friend’s death. Constant isn’t letting a notorious sadist like Paul Offenbach get away. Traps are set. A cat-and-mouse game begins. Both hunter and hunted are ready to play.

Steven Ross, a family man from a small midwestern town, has been arrested for murder. Evidence suggests he’s an accomplice of the sadistic killer Paul Offenbach. County district attorney Evan Quill believes in his heart that Ross is guilty, but as the trial unfolds, doubts emerge. He presses forward anyway, in a legal fencing match against a brilliant big-city defense attorney. Will Quill’s uncompromising beliefs put an innocent man in jail? Or will a misstep let a killer go free?

A festive street fair is underway in the shadow of the courthouse where a judge has just signed an extradition order. Paul Offenbach is escorted outside in handcuffs to a police cruiser—with another trick up his sleeve no one expects. In a matter of seconds, the killer is free, a hostage is taken from his family and Special Agent Constant Marlowe has lost her bid for justice. But is this the final chapter? As the lives of the guilty, the innocent and the vengeful converge, the winner remains uncertain.