This was a very interesting book about Jennifer Dulos who was murdered by her husband and his girlfriend. I usually get a bit frustrated when a book goes all the way back to childhood and spends so much time on events that didn't have to do with the crime. But this one was done really well and hold my interest the entire time.

Murder in the Dollhouse: The Jennifer Dulos Story by Rich Cohen, takes us through the life and final days of Jennifer Dulos who was murdered by her husband and his girlfriend. It reads more like a mystery/thriller than true crime, keeping the reader fully immersed and invested in the story throughout. The writing focused on the events that lead up to the murder but lacked the same level detail for the crime itself, and may disappoint some pure crime purists.

In addition to the book, I had the good fortune to be able to listen to the book simultaneously as well. The Narration by Edoardo Ballerini was amazing, setting a great pace for the book. I will be looking into this narrator in the future.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to read the eARC and listen to the ALC. All opinions are my own.


Print book Rating: 3 Stars
Audible book Rating: 5 stars
Pub Date: May 20 2025

Tags:
#MacmillanAudio
#FarrarStrausGiroux
#MurderInTheDollhouse
#JenniferDulos
#RichCohen
#EdoradoBallerini
#YarisBookNook
#netgalley

While this is a deep and poignant read on the life of Jennifer Dulos by someone who was loosely connected with her, this does not read as your standard true crime book. There isn't much to be found in the way of the investigation, interviews with prosecutors or investigative officials, and for some true crime fans this may be disappointing. This is instead a human piece on the person who was murdered, the days she lived and the relationships with those around her. The murder and crime itself accounts for maybe a third of the book and this is what I found to be my favorite part. Part biography, part true crime, this would be a great read for anyone already familiar with the case and wanting to get a deeper understanding of Jennifer herself.

The author immerses the reader in an emotional and tragic narrative that is difficult to pull away from. Chapters focused on Jennifer and her husband's life before the murder paint a vivid, yet dark, picture that is both thrilling and shocking. Ultimately, the narrative builds the tension so effectively that the terrible climax seems all but inevitable. Thank you to NetGalley.

I often say that the best true crime is travelogue : it is preoccupied not merely with sets of facts but with the larger context of location and circumstance, allowing the reader to learn something about the human condition by imaginatively entering into another life in another place. I would place Murder in the Dollhouse in this category; in its best moments, it rises almost to an Ann Rule or Joe McGuinness working at peak powers.

Like Rule, Cohen excavates a crime with a friend at the center, and like McGuinness, he looks to the full history and context of his subject to inform his narrative. In a case with as many unknowns and as much media saturation as the Dulos case, Cohen's book is refreshingly thorough and measured for those wishing for a clear and comprehensive account.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for this review.

While I enjoy true crime. This book just didnt hold my attention like I thought it would. I did like the aspect of making sure readers knew more about Jennifers background, simply because sometimes the person gets overshadowed by the details of their demise.

Murder in the Dollhouse by Rich Cohen is a book that I did not personally connect with, but I could see how some people might like it. There are some bright points, but overall this one did not keep me engaged.

The story is about the disappearance and likely murder of Jennifer Dulos during a contentious divorce. Cohen doesn't tell this story like a normal true crime work which is both a good and bad thing. Mainly the book recaps Jennifer's life and tries to tell the reader who she was and how she ended up where she did. As an idea, I love this. True crime is best when we celebrate the victims as living and breathing people who had lives before they were cut short. The issue is that about 80% of this book is focused on her life before the disappearance. There is way too many details. The chapters are super sized and it quickly gets old with Cohen hammering points home.

Cohen is a good writer, but not as a true crime author, at least in this case. He has done extensive research, but will also make grand pronouncements or use nonsensical cliches. I kept feeling like his style would be great in a fiction narrative, but here it is distracting and make the reader wary about what is him extrapolating as opposed to knowing something definitively from his research.

As I said, I think there is a reader who may think my criticisms are too harsh and may love this book and its style. I wouldn't argue about it. It just didn't work for me.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.)

Murder in the Dollhuse by Rich Cohen is beautifully written and provides detailed information not only into the victims life, but into the troubling marriage that lead to her death. A powerful book on how a divorce can turn ugly, and affect all of those around them.

I found myself getting very angry and sad in various points of this book. It will take you on a ride of emotions as you read through Jennifer Dulos life from childhood, to college, to getting married and ultimately, her death. I have never heard of this case so this book was my first in reading about it and I feel as if it give the reader all the information they would need to understand this case.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the True Crime/Memoir genre. However, i will caution people before reading that there will be moments where it may get a bit hard to read. While I applaud the writer for detailing every aspect of Jennifer's life, I don't believe we need as much that was given in the book. I do understand wanting to get a full picture of who Jennifer was but that much detail isn't really neccassary. With that said, definitely a good read and worth a shot for those interested in the book.

As someone who was once a fan of the true crime genre I was unfamiliar with this case. I appreciate how the book was dedicated to Jennifer’s life story which was well written in that aspect. I do think some of the details didn't really align with what was needed to continue to story though. I was hoping for more as well to addition of what is in the book about the investigation and possible interviews with the detectives to get more of a background that holistically showed all sides of the investigation. Over all I dont know if this is more a biography rather than the true crime genre as it rarely touched on the investigation and more spoke about her life. Thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 57%. Unfortunately, this book was really just not for me. I struggled through it and I wish it focused more on the actual investigation than on giving us so many details that I felt didn’t matter,

Murder in the Dollhouse written by Rich Cohen is about the disappearance and suspected murder of Jennifer Dulos. But it’s really about her life story. We follow Jennifer from her early college years until after her disappearance and the trials that follow it.
I had never heard of this case, and appreciated the fact that the information comes from people who knew Jennifer and legal documents.
I related to Jennifer a little bit as I am around the same age as she was when she met Fotis, and have some of the same concerns it appears she was having.
This was a horrific story and I really hope that Jennifer’s Law can reform the divorce system. I recommend true crime fans to read this one.
Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy.

As a self proclaimed true crime junkie, this is actually a case I do know about.
This book did a great job of breaking down the why. Everything I have ever heard on this case had been surface level through podcasts who simply did not have the time to do a giant deep dive.

I found this book to be more of a story on the background of the case, which while important, is not typically the reason people pick up a true crime book. I do wish the author had put more focus into the criminal elements of the book as I felt that was his best writing in the book.


Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

This book was very informational and I think it would be perfect for any true crime lover out there. The author wrote with great detail.

Part one could have probably been half the length. Obviously it's important to humanize the victim and give her life in the page, but it felt like an editorial piece for a magazine, too glamorous and fluffy - "Jennifer was just TOO beautiful. She was the victim of her beauty and her wealth" (like OK). "She wasn't a self-hating jew" (proceeds to list a bunch of ways she totally was, including that she converted for the sake of appearances).

The rest of the book, while a bit fluffy, was much more captivating. The attention to detail and timelines are exceptional.

Jennifer Dulos was murdered by her estranged husband during a contentious divorce, and her body has never been found. She was from a family wealthy enough to afford top lawyers, private schools for five kids, a security detail, and a multi-million dollar rental house, but in the end none of that was enough to protect her. Her story has fascinated many, perhaps seen as a cautionary tale for other women. A warning that it can happen to them, too. In all of the true crime specials or podcasts about the case, Jennifer tends to get the generic "loving mom whose smile lit up the room" treatment. Cohen does a pretty good job turning her into a real human in Murder in the Dollhouse. The Jennifer he describes is sensitive, smart, a would-be artist (after Brown, she graduated from a prestigious playwriting grad program at NYU), and someone who wanted to be a mom so badly that, in her 20s, she kept an unused crib in her apartment. It's easy to see how she ended up with someone like Dulos (which is to say, in the author's words, a psychopath): she was incredibly sheltered by a strong father didn't see how her naivete and fat trust fund turned her into a target. Later, after her father died and she struggled to get a divorce, she didn't understand that the family court system is broken and harmful and seems designed to enrich lawyers. It was never going to save her.

Cohen talks about the court system a bit and puts some blame for Jennifer's murder there. But he doesn't get into the truly scary aspects of it, and he unfairly (IMO) blames Jennifer's mom for some of what happened. In Cohen's telling, Jennifer's rich and overprotective father would have merely paid Fotis off to get free of him. Jennifer's mother, on the other hand, sued Fotis for the millions he owed her, effectively turning up the heat and discord between them. What evidence do we have that paying Fotis off would have worked?? Or that Hilliard, Jennifer's father, would have done it? Jennifer was trying to protect her kids from a scary man who, even at the best of times, dragged all five kids to a local pond to spend entire exhausting days water skiing even after they started to protest. One of the kids expressed suicidal ideation over the verbal abuse and forced water skiing (I cannot believe I just typed that phrase). Was Jennifer supposed to willingly send him to his dad's half the time so he could be mistreated? And was she supposed to trust that Fotis wouldn't abscond with the kids to Greece, where he had dual citizenship, as he threatened to do?

The Dulos story fascinates and frustrates because it's still so filled with mystery. We know part of the what but little of the why or how. Five kids orphaned, a woman destroyed. It's tragic and frustrating and scary because, yes, it's the kind of thing that can--and does--happen to anyone, anywhere, regardless of how safe or sheltered we think they are.

Thank you for the opportunity to read Murder in the Dollhouse by Rich Cohen.

While I am a fan of the true crime genre I was unfamiliar with this case. Reading about Jennifer’s story was heartbreaking. For a woman who dreamed of being married and having a family this was such a tragic way for her marriage and life to end. It is a reminder to all the Domestic Violence is in all neighborhoods.

I requested this arc because I live in the community where this occurred and am very familiar with the case. I devoured this telling of such a terrible tragedy. Even though I am quite familiar with the case, there were many details that I didn’t know. The author does a great job of painting a picture of Jennifer Dulos both before and after she married Fotus. This is a must-read for true crime fans.

I’ve read a few things on the Jennifer Dulos case, but Cohen brings a unique perspective that you just won’t get anywhere else. What a heartbreaking story. Jennifer had such high standards, until she didn’t. I think many women can empathize with her desire to start a family, and sometimes those desires cloud your judgement. The fact that they still have not found her body is heartbreaking. Thank you for shedding more light on this sad but true case. The details really brought the story to life and I think it’s so important to give a voice to Jennifer.

Once I picked this up, I was fully sucked into this true crime story. It’s relatively local to me, so I’m a bit surprised but the story is truly horrific. We watch a girl from a wealthy man turn antsy while waiting for a family of her own get sucked into an evil, narcissistic man’s world. The story made me so angry.

Overall, I think Cohen told the story well, humanizing the victim and capturing the evil of the perpetrators.

What I expected from this book and what I read were exactly what I hoped for. Was interesting and a cool read. Would definitely recommend.