Reviews for The Face of Death

The average rating for The Face of Death based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-12-08 00:00:00 Jared Sheffield A man Sarah calls The Stranger took control of her life on her sixth birthday. Now Sarah is 16 years old, sitting in the middle of a horrific crime scene, again. She holds a gun to her head and says she will talk to only FBI Agent Smoky Barrett. No one believed her last time, but she's going to make damn sure someone believes her this time. Smoky's team from the first book is here, except for Leo. Perhaps he saw "too much" on the last case. Callie and Alan are like old friends, and James remains an enigma. Kirby is new, and after Leo's apparent exit, I wonder if she will stick around in the next book. This book is no less gruesome than the first. The author sure knows how to pull me in emotionally. Unlike the first book, a couple of heartstrings were pulled in this one as Sarah tells her story. The author also knows how to create some really sick characters, and the one in this book is seriously crazy. How McFadyen can write beautiful, loving scenes in the middle of despicable human acts is a wonder to me. The fight between good and evil continues, will always continue. I hope it's not driving the author mad. On to book #3.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-07-30 00:00:00 Sandra Howard The Face Of Death is the second book in the Smoky Barrett series. I had read book one on high recommendation so thought it was high time that I undertook book two. Time has moved on since the last book and Smoky is now faced with a new challenge. (Gotta say, I'm still struggling with the name .... but hey ho!). We know from the blurb that a sixteen year old girl asks for Smoky at a crime scene. It's not clear initially what has gone on, is the girl a killer or a victim? But as the book progresses all becomes clear. In this instance it's difficult to talk about plot line without giving too much away. What is clear, however, that this is an exciting rollercoaster thrills and spills with gruesome touches of a read. It doesn't hold back at times on the gruesome factor and I actually found it quite chilling in places; senses alarminghly heightened when reading in the dead of night. Here I'm going to admit to turning on an extra light as I was feverishly turning from right to left. My bravery levels are impressive! I was glad to see that there was less character background as all that had been fleshed out in the previous and it really focused more on storytelling. There is no doubt that McFadyen writes extraordinarily well with much interweaving and never really giving anything away until near the end. It's more of a FBI procedural that's done very well giving us information on the requisite agencies and databases used. Smoky's story too moves on and we get to see where her adopted daughter, Bonnie, is now. I just love her, a real favourite character of mine. The Face Of Death really is a heart stopping, not for the fainthearted, thrilling read that never lets up until the very last page. I enjoyed it hugely (when I was able to breathe that is!) and went straight onto book three in the series. Yeah, I know, I'm a sucker for a good book!!