The Sleeping Doll: Kathryn Dance Book 1 Deaver, Jeffery

A Charles Manson-like cult leader escapes from San Quentin hours before his execution, and California Bureau of Investigation agent Kathryn Dance has eight hours to stop him. Daniel Pell — the "Son of Manson" — murdered an entire family years ago, sparing only their nine-year-old daughter. Now he's out, and that lone survivor, "the sleeping doll," might be his next target. Dance is a kinesics expert who reads body language the way other investigators read fingerprints, and she'll need every skill to outthink a manipulator who's spent a lifetime bending people to his will. Jeffery Deaver brings his trademark plot twists to a taut psychological thriller that races against the clock. First in the Kathryn Dance series, this introduces one of crime fiction's sharpest investigators — cerebral, relentless, and deeply human. For fans of psychological suspense and procedurals with an edge.