A Man With One of Those Faces by Caimh McDonnell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I chose this book based on the title and the cover, both of which are great. The blurb is about how Paul has one of those nondescript faces which means that people tend to mistake him for someone else quite a lot. It starts off with him offering a service where he visits elderly patients in hospitals and hospices and pretends to be a nephew or a grandson – the patient is happy because they’ve had someone visit and Paul gets to do the charity work that is the prerequisite for him getting his allowance.

This is a crime novel with a twist of comedy running through it. I thought that was quite a refreshing thing to see. The humour is quite dark. The crime side is good too. There’s a decent mystery and a good twist at the end.

Paul’s nondescript-ness doesn’t really play much part in the story after chapter one. Paul is meant to be really intelligent, but you only know that because people tell you so. He doesn’t seem any cleverer than your average chap. Nurse Brigit is much more on the ball. I liked her a lot.
I liked Bunny too. He was interesting and realistic. I probably wouldn’t want to meet him in real life.

There were a lot of secondary character gangsters and crooked cops, whom I tended to lose track of after a while (I read fast and am easily confused, so this might just be me).

All in all, a good fun read, especially if you like combination of crime and dark humour.

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