It is a bleak looking day in Scotland, like every other
winter day in 1979, to 35-year-old investigative reporter
Neil Bannerman. Journalists are quietly being dropped one
after another like flies as newspapers lose their
circulation and profits. Even the Edinburgh Post is no
exception to the trend and Neil realizes it is time to
ponder his future. As he is called to a meeting with Tait,
the hated new editor, Bannerman expects the worse but is
unexpectedly sent off to Brussels to get the goods on what
is happening with the ECC.
After arriving in Brussels and sitting in on meetings going
nowhere, Bannerman realizes he is to stay on the cheap with
fellow reporter Tim Slater in the Post's apartment there,
and Slater is none too pleased to have him there.
Meanwhile, an assassin is on a mission to kill two people.
As a professional, Kale prides himself on leaving no
witnesses. As he goes to collect his payment, he gets a
shocking message. What the hell happened?
THE MAN WITH NO FACE is written by the highly regarded TV
dramatist and novelist Peter May. As noted by May in his
Introduction, THE MAN WITH NO FACE is a lightly revised
version of his third book previously published in 1981; yet,
given all the changes to the European Union and with Brexit,
the story and the politics are very timely indeed.
I have read a number of May's recent books and appreciate
his style as a dramatist and a storyteller. In THE MAN WITH
NO FACE, May brilliantly sets a stage that provides both a
wide angle, yet intimate look at this pivotal time for the
United Kingdom and Europe. From the first to the last page,
I was totally captivated by THE MAN WITH NO FACE.
May's settings and his use of small details, like the
constant smoking everywhere, the clothes worn, and the looks
given are starkly, yet vividly, described, that the scenes
instantly flash in the reader's mind. Also noteworthy are
May's use of small interactions that connect Neil with
Tania, Slater's autistic daughter who doesn't speak but can
draw, as well as flashbacks to his own arrogant and callous
younger self.
May's plot development is gripping and effectively captures
the often hostile and dangerous undercurrents underlying
various surface interactions between the characters. This is
particularly well done in May's descriptions of boozy
gatherings with reporters circling around the various EEC
players in or with fellow newsmen, ever watchful for that
smell of an exclusive that will secure their future. May's
characters and their related strong human emotion are so
realistically described that it is hard to believe at times
that THE MAN WITH NO FACE is a novel!
If you are a previous fan of Peter May's novels or just love
a good mystery with a bit of Noir, then THE MAN WITH NO FACE
is sure to immerse you in a unique situation from the past
that still resonates today! So, grab your copy and find out
the story behind THE MAN WITH NO FACE!
A classic early novel from Peter May situated among the
political intrigue of Brussels, Belgium, in 1979--now
available in the United States.
There are two men on their way to Brussels from the UK: Neil
Bannerman, an iconoclastic journalist for Scotland's
Daily Standard whose irate editor wants him out of
the way, and Kale--a professional assassin.
Expecting to find only a difficult, dreary political
investigation in Belgium, Bannerman has barely settled in
when tragedy strikes. His host, a fellow journalist, along
with a British Cabinet minister, are discovered dead in the
minister's elegant Brussels townhouse. It appears that they
have shot each other. But the dead journalist's young
autistic daughter, Tania, was hidden in a closet during the
killings, and when she draws a chilling picture of a third
party--a man with no face--Bannerman suddenly finds himself
a reluctant participant in a desperate murder investigation.
As the facts slowly begin to emerge under Bannerman's
scrutiny, he comes to suspect that the shootings may have a
deep and foul link with the rotten politics that brought him
to Brussels in the first place. And as Kale threatens to
strike again, Bannerman begins to feel a change within
himself. His jaded professionalism is transforming into a
growing concern for the lonely and frightened Tania, and a
strong attraction to a courageous woman named Sally--drawing
him out of himself and into the very heart of a profound,
cold-blooded, and infinitely dangerous conspiracy.
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