The Dollhouse is centered around The Barbizon, a landmark New York building, originally used as a hotel for women which has since been converted to luxury apartments.
Journalist Rose lives in one of the Barbizon's luxury apartments. When she hears rumours of a hushed up scandal involving one of the long time residents, Rose is determined to discover what exactly happened. Interviewing long time inhabitants Rose slowly uncovers the story of Darby, a quiet Mid-Western girl who arrives at the hotel in 1952 to enroll in secretarial school.
When Darby is befriended by one of the hotel maids she becomes entranced with the seedier side of New York City, frequenting all night down town jazz clubs and falling in love. As Darby is about to leave New York for California a deadly skirmish occurs. But what exactly happened and will Rose get to the bottom of the story?
This was a book that received good print reviews and sounded as if it would be a fast paced engaging read, however, I failed to connect with this book for a number of reasons. I found that the writing style was very awkward and the two interconnected story lines were poorly plotted and full of cliched characters. As both Rose and Darby were rather unlikeable, so I found myself not caring what happened to either of them.
Overall the story was unrealistic and clumsily written. It was a good premise but the book failed to live up to expectation. I wish I had given this one a pass.
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