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.
No excerpt available.
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