MURDER IN THE DOLLHOUSE

A story of calculated, premeditated violence shaded by its relationship to a precariously idyllic world of wealth.

Jennifer Farber Dulos’ disappearance and probable murder (no body has been found) at the hands of her husband in May 2019 captured headlines and rocked the suburban Connecticut town where she lived. Cohen reported on the murder and the ensuing trials of Fotis Dulos and his paramour in a series for Air Mail. In this book, he compiles and supplements his reportage to dive even deeper into the story of Jennifer and her Turkish-born Greek husband—“a schemer, climber, and possible psychopath.” In snipped sentences of tight prose with the suspenseful pacing of a thriller, the author mines everything from court documents to conversations with school friends to examine the Dulos marriage and its decline from every angle. He builds portraits of the main actors and the world in which they moved with breathtakingly exhaustive detail, reaching into their childhoods, the interplay of Jennifer’s family wealth and history with their respective dreams, ambitions, and insecurities and the disintegration of their relationship even before the terror turned physical. Cohen says he became “fixated” on the story because of its proximity and familiarity to his own and suggests that fascination with the case might stem from a sense of commonality when violence permeates insulated worlds of wealth and privilege. The bodyguards, expensive court orders, and time-consuming drama of the Dulos divorce are hardly “quotidian” to most people, but the failures of these protections terrifyingly emphasize the insurmountable threat of a determined killer. In the end, perhaps the most tragic devastation comes from the way her persistent “childhood dream of perfect matrimony”—considered shallow by some and fiercely defended by her—was hijacked by its pursuit.

A scintillating, chillingly compulsive, utterly heartbreaking read.