Stealing Faces by Michael Prescott

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a customer review about Stealing Faces by Michael Prescott that boldly stated the customer would never again buy a $0.99 download from Amazon and instead would stick with books recommend by the New York Times. The reason for this, according to the customer (who claims to be a fan of such books), was due to the excessive gore present within the prologue. Anyone familiar with my blog probably saw the post I wrote about it. If not you can find it here: Too Much Blood and Gore So . . . No More $0.99 Priced Books? My reason for writing about it had two parts: first I was blown away by the stupidity of the claim; second I had actually read the prologue of the book that was offered for free on Amazon and saw nothing in it that was excessive. Sure, a face was ripped off of a young woman who was being hunted by a gunman, but that alone shouldn’t have been enough to elicit such a response, not the way it was written. Had Michael Prescott gone into serious detail about the act, his pen describing the stripping of connective tissues from the skull, the sound it makes, and the way the eyelids will suddenly pop free from where they cling to the sockets, then yes, maybe the customer would have a reason for complaint. That wasn’t there, however. Instead, Michael Prescott allowed the reader to imagine what took place, a single non-gratuitous sentence mentioning the act being all that was written. Anything else viewed in the scene is a result of the readers brain, thus, any cries of excessive gore should be directed that way, right? As for this brain (my own), it wasn’t grossed out or disturbed; instead it was intrigued and quickly made all the commands necessary to ensure a copy of the book would be arriving in the mail within a few weeks.

Kaylie McMillan is a young woman who has spent many years eluding those that hunted her. Lately, however, she has become the hunter. Her prey is a man named John Cray. Her reason for hunting him: she suspects he is the one behind a murder recently uncovered in an area outside of Tuscan, Arizona known as the White Mountains. The victim’s name was Sharon Andrews. Her body was discovered after a flash flood pulled it free from the grave it was buried in, the plastic it was wrapped in to keep predators from seeking out its scent having actually preserved it. Had this not been the case the realization that the face had been ripped free by the killer may never have come to light due to decomposition and natural scavengers. The horrific act has come to light, however, and for some reason it sparks something in Kaylie’s head, something that tells her John Cray was behind the act. Furthermore she suspects it was not an isolated incident. He will hunt again, unless that is, she can stop him. Unfortunately for her John Cray is not easy prey, especially when he knows he is being hunted. Curious as to why, he sets out to uncover the truth about this woman, and find out why she suspects him of the Sharon Andrews murder. Once he knows this he will include her in his next hunt, one that if successful, will allow him to add her face to his collection. The only question now is who will be the victor. Will it be Kaylie McMillan who has spent years eluding capture for something she did in the past, something that makes it impossible for her to go to the police in person and report her suspicions; or will it be John Cray, a brilliant psychopath who is a respected member of the psychiatric community and knows how to manipulate all those around him, police included, into believing whatever he says?

Stealing Faces by Michael Prescott was a fun and exciting read. It also was a fast read, something that I wasn’t expecting when first carrying the four hundred plus page paperback to my couch and opening it. It’s the constant action, and cliff hanger scenes ending each chapter that does this, the reader unable to put the book down both because they want to know what will happen next, and because they know the chapters are short so allowing for one more doesn’t seem too daunting. Of course this ‘just one more chapter’ always turns into five or ten of fifteen more chapters, the pages flying by as the suspense builds and builds until one simply can’t stand it anymore and has to get to end in that sitting. For me that ending came about an hour ago (as of writing this, not posting it). I even held off cooking dinner despite my hunger just so I could finish it, and that was when I still had about seventy pages to go. My only criticism of the book was that toward the end it was mentioned several times that the doors in a particular building would be locked from both sides so one would need a key to get in and out. Now maybe I noticed this more than others would since I read so much of the book in one sitting, but after reading this being noted in the thoughts of different characters three times I kind of felt like the writer thought I was slow. Aside from that one little thing I really liked the book and think it is a must read for anyone who enjoys fast paced tales of suspense -- especially the last hundred pages. How anyone could ever set this book aside once they reach that point is beyond me. The situation involved would have to be pretty intense to allow for such an act. Now I can’t wait to get my hands on Comes the Dark, a novel written by Michael Prescott whose praise was spoken from every available spot within my copy of Stealing Faces.