BOOK REVIEW: Faceless by Martina Cole ★★★☆☆
WARNING. CONTAINS SPOILERS.
It was by chance that I brought this book for 50p from Breast Cancer Charity. I’ve never been interested in crime/thriller novels but there was something about the title ‘Faceless’ that made me want to pick it up. I read the introduction and from what the author Martina Cole states, she based her story on a nameless prostitute she interviewed, who talked about herself being Faceless when she met her clients. To this day, she does not know what happened to the woman who she interviewed. Needless to say, I found the tile really intriguing. Although six hundred page novels put me straight off I decided to give this a go. What’s the worst that could happen?
As this was the first time I was reading a book by this author, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Cole. I’ve heard that her other bestsellers Dangerous Lady, The Jump, The Take and The Runaway have been adapted into high-rating television dramas and all centred around London’s East End underworld of pimps, gangs and prostitutes. So this is something I would never have read, thinking it’s not really my cup of tea.
I have to say Cole wrote a real page turner on topics with which I'm not very familiar with and not very much talked about; for instance, drugs, alcohol, prostitution in the UK. It was a real eye opener to a different type of culture, morals and lifestyle. Even within the first chapter the reader is introduced to the protagonist Marie Carter, a prostitute and double murderess, who’s so accustomed with prison life, is now being released a few months early. The way Cole gets you inside Marie’s head is mind-blowing and to actually step back and see what life is like for an ex-prisoner. They have to reintegrate into a society that feels decades ahead of them and they have to deal with the community’s rejection.
The novel gives you an insight into how drugs can affect you, your family and others around you and how people can be quite judgemental. For example, when Marie left prison she knew right away she was not going to be welcomed by her family but I did not expect her mother, Louise Carter, to be so crude and tell Marie to fuck off! And this all happens in the first chapter alone.
I love the way Cole makes you feel you know the characters inside and out just by putting you in their shoes. You really do go on an emotional roller coaster with each character. Marie is trying to find retribution and her mother acid hatred for Marie and trying to deal with her son’s suicide (who she solely blames Marie), the father Kevin Carter is torn between his love for his daughter and wife (resulting in a mental breakdown) and Marie’s own daughter Tiffany becomes a stripper to provide for her three-year-old daughter Anastasia, mirroring Marie’s younger years. Even the reader goes inside the antagonist, Patrick Conner’s, head and I absolutely loathed him from start to finish. He’s power to manipulate poor Tiffany and other girls like her through drugs really made me sick to the core and what’s worse, there are people out there just like him; charming on the outside and rotten from the inside.
And I’m glad that Cole had me emotional connected to the characters as this is one of the key ingredients to make a gripping story. Faceless had developed characters, a plot line with twists and turns to keep you guessing.
Now for the cons: As much as I hate to say this, I was HUGELY disappointed with the climax. I imagined the climax to be BIG especially when Marie came face to face the Patrick. I had this notion that she would kill him in a dramatic fashion or have some sort of final message for him. Instead, she just kills him, which just seemed too good to be true as Patrick is a well-built man and in reality, he could have easily killed Marie, and I felt that Cole didn’t do justice with that. I mean it was so blunt and dry that I had to reread the page again to see if I missed anything crucial. Though the final twist and ending picked up its beginning standards I still couldn’t wrap my head around the poor climax.
In addition, I heard a lot of readers did not like the amount of profanity used in this book. And it’s true, as most of the characters did use the F, B and C words in their dialogue but that just adds to the ‘realism’ of how that type of culture is like. I personally did not mind but this is just a heads up to other readers who did not expect that.
To summarise, although 20% of readers didn’t like the story I actually managed to sit down and read this book. Cole wrote is so well (apart from the sore climax). It was depressing and tragic but a true tip of the iceberg description of the London underworld. I may not want to read it because of the subject matter however I would recommend it to other readers who love gripping crime stories.
Rating 3.5/5
Publishers Headline
Publication date: November 11 2010
Genre: Crime
It was by chance that I brought this book for 50p from Breast Cancer Charity. I’ve never been interested in crime/thriller novels but there was something about the title ‘Faceless’ that made me want to pick it up. I read the introduction and from what the author Martina Cole states, she based her story on a nameless prostitute she interviewed, who talked about herself being Faceless when she met her clients. To this day, she does not know what happened to the woman who she interviewed. Needless to say, I found the tile really intriguing. Although six hundred page novels put me straight off I decided to give this a go. What’s the worst that could happen?
As this was the first time I was reading a book by this author, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Cole. I’ve heard that her other bestsellers Dangerous Lady, The Jump, The Take and The Runaway have been adapted into high-rating television dramas and all centred around London’s East End underworld of pimps, gangs and prostitutes. So this is something I would never have read, thinking it’s not really my cup of tea.
I have to say Cole wrote a real page turner on topics with which I'm not very familiar with and not very much talked about; for instance, drugs, alcohol, prostitution in the UK. It was a real eye opener to a different type of culture, morals and lifestyle. Even within the first chapter the reader is introduced to the protagonist Marie Carter, a prostitute and double murderess, who’s so accustomed with prison life, is now being released a few months early. The way Cole gets you inside Marie’s head is mind-blowing and to actually step back and see what life is like for an ex-prisoner. They have to reintegrate into a society that feels decades ahead of them and they have to deal with the community’s rejection.
The novel gives you an insight into how drugs can affect you, your family and others around you and how people can be quite judgemental. For example, when Marie left prison she knew right away she was not going to be welcomed by her family but I did not expect her mother, Louise Carter, to be so crude and tell Marie to fuck off! And this all happens in the first chapter alone.
I love the way Cole makes you feel you know the characters inside and out just by putting you in their shoes. You really do go on an emotional roller coaster with each character. Marie is trying to find retribution and her mother acid hatred for Marie and trying to deal with her son’s suicide (who she solely blames Marie), the father Kevin Carter is torn between his love for his daughter and wife (resulting in a mental breakdown) and Marie’s own daughter Tiffany becomes a stripper to provide for her three-year-old daughter Anastasia, mirroring Marie’s younger years. Even the reader goes inside the antagonist, Patrick Conner’s, head and I absolutely loathed him from start to finish. He’s power to manipulate poor Tiffany and other girls like her through drugs really made me sick to the core and what’s worse, there are people out there just like him; charming on the outside and rotten from the inside.
And I’m glad that Cole had me emotional connected to the characters as this is one of the key ingredients to make a gripping story. Faceless had developed characters, a plot line with twists and turns to keep you guessing.
Now for the cons: As much as I hate to say this, I was HUGELY disappointed with the climax. I imagined the climax to be BIG especially when Marie came face to face the Patrick. I had this notion that she would kill him in a dramatic fashion or have some sort of final message for him. Instead, she just kills him, which just seemed too good to be true as Patrick is a well-built man and in reality, he could have easily killed Marie, and I felt that Cole didn’t do justice with that. I mean it was so blunt and dry that I had to reread the page again to see if I missed anything crucial. Though the final twist and ending picked up its beginning standards I still couldn’t wrap my head around the poor climax.
In addition, I heard a lot of readers did not like the amount of profanity used in this book. And it’s true, as most of the characters did use the F, B and C words in their dialogue but that just adds to the ‘realism’ of how that type of culture is like. I personally did not mind but this is just a heads up to other readers who did not expect that.
To summarise, although 20% of readers didn’t like the story I actually managed to sit down and read this book. Cole wrote is so well (apart from the sore climax). It was depressing and tragic but a true tip of the iceberg description of the London underworld. I may not want to read it because of the subject matter however I would recommend it to other readers who love gripping crime stories.
Rating 3.5/5
Publishers Headline
Publication date: November 11 2010
Genre: Crime
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