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Probably about 3.3 stars overall. There are 13 short stories in this book, and obviously, some are better than others. I would describe most of them as being more like character studies, rather than well-rounded, completed tales. ‘The Doll��, the short story which this collection is titled after, is a good example of this - it’s about two strange, obsessive people crossing paths, which is then left open ended.

Quite a few of the stories are about love quickly turning sour - the ‘Week-End�� was quite fun, while ‘Piccadilly�� is rather sad.

I think the strongest stories in this collection are, ‘And Now to God the Father�� and ‘The Limpet�� - two studies of toxic people. I’m sure we’ve all met people like them (and, if you haven’t, you might be the toxic one :-/ ), and it’s chilling how these types of people cause so much damage and get away with it. Du Maurier has managed to capture them so well here.

‘The Happy Valley��, has seeds of the ideas which du Maurier would use later in ‘Rebecca��, and, as a fan of that novel, I found this really interesting. In fact, a lot of the stories in this book were written early in du Maurier’s career, and it was clear she was trying out ideas and characters she would develop later in her novels. If you’re interested in du Maurier’s work, or just writing in general, this book makes for an interesting study in writing as a craft.