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Special Agent Smoky Barrett knows what it is like to live in pain. A year ago a madman came to her home, killed her husband, disfigured her for life, and caused the death of her ten-year-old daughter, Alexa. Her face is a testament and reminder of what has happened to her. She contemplated ending her life at the beginning of THE SHADOW MAN, but special circumstances made her re-evaluate her decision and take charge of her life once again. She is still dealing with her past, but for once she is looking straight towards the future. This time she helps a 16-year-old girl by the name of Sarah Langstrom regain her life after a madman has targeted her for a life of turmoil for reasons as yet unknown to the girl. The Stranger wants revenge for something Sarah might or might not be directly involved in. All she knows is that she has not experienced true happiness since she was a child and she is desperate. Smoky may be her only path towards salvation. McFadyen does know how to write a scary novel and he has a great way when it comes to all of the characters involved in the story. Each one has a story and through his previous book THE SHADOW MAN and this current one he has managed to flesh out the characters so that reader cares for them and gets to see their motivations. Smoky does not define the book, even though she is the narrator of the story. It is her friends and co-workers who define her. They have gone through a lot and they appear to understand Smoky real well. As to the plot itself, that is where the weakness lies. Even after learning the identity of The Stranger, it appears that he knows too much to be plausible or even remotely possible about the investigation, as well as to keeping up with Sarah's life. Also there is a problem regarding the narrative. Smoky gets to read Sarah's diary when it comes to The Stranger, but it doesn't seem real or natural. It confused more than anything else. It might have worked as a face-to-face interview between the two characters but then the action in the story would have suffered. The only thing that turned me off the book was in the description of characters' previous events that happened prior to THE SHADOW MAN. I cannot swear to it, or I don't know if it was the advance reading copy of the book I got for this review, but it appears that the author repeated himself word for word when describing the agents in Smoky's team. THE FACE OF DEATH has its good moments, but then it becomes a bit too much. There are too many coincidences, too many improbabilities, and too much aggravation. I like the characters and am looking forward to reading about them again. I just did not care for the story.
Reviewed by Angel L. Soto, May 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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