Review: Faceless

Faceless by Rob Ashman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Bought today after I read Petra's review and it was cheap (less than 1 Eur/1.10 Us$ as Kindle eBook). This should be right up my alley.

Well, it was not, the point re the MC in the review linked is not the only bad point against it.
Rate this 2.5 rounded down to 2, not recommended.
Could have been way better with a few cuts and a different ending.
Basically (not to spoil anything but that will be hard) I hate it when the MC does the following: goes alone to try to solve the case and does not tell anyone, so no can follow her. Then the main ending I saw coming since nearly the introduction, with a little twist I by the MC I really do not like. A different outcome would have been way better, I like criminals to get what they deserve - jail time.

Then there is a scene (nearly exactly 50% into the book if I remember right) that gets outdrawn
and played to a boring death - it shows nearly everyone as stupid, which is too simple and not convincing to me. Again, it was way too long, and while I did not guess how that that happened in the beginning, it was explained, and some did not catch on quick, which I simply cannot believe of all persons involved, the fall guy, ok, he was stupid enough, but the others?
While the action took place in the greater Manchester area (not London for once, for which I am glad), that did not save the book, and some expressions and swaering felt too much US like - what I really like about some other books taking place in the UK is the use of way different swear words than in US books and sometimes way different slang - which did not happen here, it was at times the overused words like Bitch and swearing used a little too much or in the wrong place - not disturbing, but could have been better, at least other words.

Also for a book published in 2018 taking place in the UK Brexit should have been mentioned, at least in passing.

The main criminal was way better thought out than the backstory of the MC and I could have cared more about him, but did not really like him (her).

All that together and as it was the book was a little long and took me too long as it dragged me along, but I wanted to finish it, it did not feel like a DNF.
Too little suspense for me.
So, not recommended, and will gladly not read anymore of this author, as I do not care wether the probably following books get better or not (which is sometimes the case).

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