The Man With No Face: A powerful and prescient crime thriller from the author of The Lewis Trilogy

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Juntar um bom enredo com uma escrita envolvente, isso é Peter May. Gosto imenso da forma como ele escreve e este livro é mais uma prova disso. There feels an urgency and unease throughout the book as Peter May makes no cover up of the killer to the reader, you know his thoughts and plans. He is a professional and known throughout the business as being efficient. Bannerman, as journalists go are detectives in their own right, digging and delving into leads, especially where they aren’t wanted but they don’t normally have to put their own life on the edge. Bannerman had made some sort of connection with Tania and she with him. She had an ease with him that she couldn’t make with others and he felt protective of her. The Faceless Men are a fairly old organization, predating even the Doom of Valyria. Their founders were slaves who worked in the mines under the Fourteen Fires, the great volcanic mountain chain whose eruption destroyed the Valyrian Freehold four centuries ago. The thousands of slaves from a hundred different lands faced death on a daily basis, and over time, the belief developed among some of them that while they came from many different lands and followed many different religions, all of these religions were fundamentally the same, because they all worshiped death in some fashion. They were either polytheistic religions that had a god devoted to death, or monotheistic religions with a deity that had dominion over death. In time this turned into a syncretic belief system worshiping the Many-Faced God of Death, holding that Death has appeared to humans under many different faces as many different gods, but they are all fundamentally one god. After dinning at Slater’s home and meeting his autistic daughter Tania he ops to leave and stay at a nearby hotel. He had never liked Slater and the feeling was mutual. When Slater is subsequently found murdered along with a junior minister, at his home, there is a witness to who has done this, his autistic daughter who has a sharp mind and talent for detail and drawing but the inability to communicate which results in outburst of screaming and frustration. Unfortunately she did not see the man’s face, but the killer is already planning to tie up that loose end. THE 12 MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE LEWIS TRILOGY, THE ENZO FILES AND THE CHINA THRILLERS

Morris, Debbie Wachter (October 5, 2007). "Local Green Man legend headed for the big screen". New Castle News. Ellwood City, Pennsylvania: Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. As Bannerman settles into Brussels, he seems to be at odds with other Brits their, including an old colleague who is not too pleased to see, though he does seem to take a shine to young Tania, the poor mute girl who is terrified after what she witnessed, and seems to have a brilliant talent for art, which may help find her Father's killer, Bannerman seems to have Fatherly feelings for her, and things from his past, hold a lot of guilt for him, as he once fathered a child when he himself was a young lad, and wonders what become of his long lost daughter. In my recent review of Saga of the Swamp Thing, Book Six I noted that the storytelling from Alan Moore as he closed his run on the book felt tired, and that Moore had said all he had to say when it came to Swamp Thing. When Moore walked away from Swamp Thing he had been a part of the book for almost four years, having written 42 of the 44 issues published between taking over the book in issue #20 and when he walked away with issue #64. What does this have to do with Ed Brubaker? Well by the time we get around to The Man With No Face Brubaker had also been on Captain America for exactly 42 issues (43 if you want to count Winter Soldier: Winter Kills which is tangentially related to Captain America but lays some of the groundwork for "The Death of Captain America" arc. Unlike Moore, who seemed to be ambivalent at best toward the end of his Swamp Thing run, Brubaker's tank seems to be still full of gas.Originally published in 1981 with the title "Hidden Faces", The Man with No Face by Peter May is a slow burning, detailed thriller which saw investigative journalist Neil Bannerman head to Brussels from Edinburgh to follow a political investigation. Little did he know a colleague plus a British minister who had a meeting together would be found dead, a matter of hours after his arrival, with the autistic daughter of his colleague distraught nearby. This book was first published in 1981 as Hidden Faces but, having read it, I think The Man With No Face a far better title. Meanwhile, there is an assassin after arriving into Brussels with an agenda to take out two targets, a journalist and a British Cabinet minister. The journalist is question, being Tony Slater and the minister, a Robert Gryffe. Kale, the individual assigned with this task is a hardened war vet who suffered a very traumatic childhood. His experiences in the army and his difficult childhood left their mark on Kale, now a man with no conscience and no love for any person, not even himself, making him a very dangerous foe. But Kale hadn’t figured on leaving a witness behind after he had completed his task in hand. He never knew she was there……but Tania saw it all. She witnessed the cold-blooded murder of her father and the politician and drew a sketch detailing the scene. The one piece missing off the sketch is the face of the killer. Jaded Edinburgh journalist Neil Bannerman is sent to Brussels, intent on digging up dirt. Yet it is danger he discovers, when two British men are found murdered. Peter May always brings his characters and settings to life with detailed, colourful, easy to read and engaging writing.

Set on the eve of a UK general election, the topic on everyone’s lips is Britain’s membership of the European Union. Political conspiracies, freedom of the press, corruption and assassinations, all set in the pre-internet era, when nobody had mobile phones and information was slower to travel and easier to conceal. The Man With No Face Neil Bannerman is a wonderfully rounded character, beset as he is with the cynicism inherent in his profession as a journalist, but also the way that he reveals another side to his character in his interactions with the daughter, Tania, of his murdered friend. May builds up a superbly empathetic connection between the two of them, particularly in his sensitive portrayal of Tania cast adrift in a world that her autism complicates further, and this is a real standout feature of the book. Refreshingly, May casts an almost empathetic light on the perpetrator of the crimes, and reserves a good degree of bile for some of the less than savoury characters that inhabit the world of journalism and politics so there’s a great mix of heroes and villains. This novel is about Scottish reporter Colin Bannerman who is sent to Brussels to write a series of articles about the Common Market. His editor asks him to stay at the home of a man named Slater, a newspaper colleague who Bannerman dislikes for the duration of his visit. While staying at Slater's home Bannerman gets attached to Tania Slater's young, autistic daughter and a strange relationship is made. Not long after Bannerman's arrival , Slater and a junior minister at the EEC, Robert Gryffe, are assassinated and Tania witnesses the crime resulting with the murderer been given instructions to kill her. While the local police are instructed to cover-up the double murder for political reasons, Bannerman is determined to find out and reveal the truth. They consider themselves servants of the Many-Faced God, a god of death who is unknowingly worshiped by all religions in the world, in the form of one god or another. The weirwood Face for the Old Gods of the Forest and the Stranger of the Faith of the Seven are two such deities. Faceless Men are trained to relinquish their former identities and become "no one", which allows them to become entirely different people, all in service to the Many-Faced God. They also believe that, as servants of death, they must serve above all else and that they must deliver upon certain people the "gift" of death.I enjoy reading Peter May books and really enjoyed his China Thrillers and the Lewis Trilogy so I was really looking forward to this one. The book was originally released in 1981 under the title 'Hidden Faces' but re-released next year as 'The Man with no face'. No, The Man With No Face, with its mysterious title and beautiful cover, is a cleverly quiet tale of lives in 1979, with everything we knew at that time, and everything we didn’t. Neil Bannerman, an Edinburgh journalist has been sent to Brussels to cover the political news. To save costs his newspaper has billeted him in an apartment with a fellow journalist, Tim Slater, who is a widowed father with a young autistic daughter called Tania. One Sunday when his usual babysittter is unable to work, Slater is forced to take his daughter to a meeting with a British government Minister. While playing in the cloakroom of the Minister's house, Tania witnesses an assassination and sees the assassin leaving the house. As Tania is not verbal, she can't tell the police what she saw but with a gift for accurate drawing, she gives the police a drawing of the man she saw but stops short before drawing his face. Originally published with the title "Hidden Faces" in 1981 at the start of his writing career, Peter May has edited and re-released this thriller. Set in the early 1970s as Britain is joining the European Union, this is still very topical for today. One victim is a journalist, the other a Cabinet Minister: the double-assassination witnessed by the former's autistic daughter. This girl recalls every detail about her father's killer - except for one.

I can’t believe that this is the first I’ve ever read of Peter May’s writing. I feel thoroughly ashamed of myself. I received a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank the publisher and Agnes for inviting me to be part of this blog tour!The assassin Kale, is also still in Brussels, and is under instruction to take care of unfinished business, following the assassination, we get to know about his past too, and his own fears come into play. 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. In the introduction again, May says that the portrayal of Tania’s autism is “a reflection of prevailing opinion at the time”. I must say I think it’s stood the test of time very well, and still reads to me as far more authentic and less sensationalised or mawkish than many of the more recent fictional portrayals of people with autism. The reader is occasionally allowed inside Tania’s mind where we see her frustration at her inability to express herself, and that helps to explain her sometimes extreme behaviour. It’s a sympathetic and somewhat understated picture, and I found her entirely credible. I've seen a man who could change his face, the way that other men change their clothes." ― Doreah [src]