What do readers think of The Face Thief by Eli Gottlieb? Write your own review.

A good thriller moves quickly, taking its characters through lots of twists and turns and keeping the reader second guessing. The author gives enough backstory to each character to make them interesting. Unfortunately, this book has none of these elements.

Almost nothing happens in this book, which is about a woman who may or may not have been murdered and who may or may not have done it. The characters were so uninteresting that I didn't really care who did it, and so few characters were in this book that it had absolutely no suspense. Saying that the plot was thin would be an understatement.

The author also had an annoying habit of having each character think through what previously happened to them instead of actually putting the characters in present tense and making them move around and do something, or finding more subtle and varied ways to insert some backstory.

Skip this book.

I had a very difficult time with this book. I couldn't get into it -- in fact, I started it three times. I had difficulty following the plot and I had to force myself to finish it. The reason why I was initially interested in reading The Face Thief was because of the concept of face reading, but I found the whole idea silly and therefore, could not take this book seriously.

This book reads quickly due to a smooth writing style, but the structure is confusing and complicated. There is really no one in this book to like or with whom one might make a connection. And at the end of the book, I was unsure what had really happened. Maybe it is me, but deliberate obfuscation seems pointless.

There is an art to writing a short novel; every word and every character must matter. Unfortunately, the FACE THIEF is filled with characters that are undeveloped and with language that is inelegant, often clumsy. The protagonists do not inspire sympathy or empathy from the reader, and they often act or speak in ways that are just not believable. Most importantly, the promise of a first-rate mystery is never fulfilled. Instead, the story line merely feels disjointed, vague, and unprovocative. The novel reads like a first draft that, with a strong editorial hand, could have been developed into something more interesting.

The Face Thief is a book crafted from an interesting concept, engaging language, and three fully formed characters. Unfortunately, the result of these excellent ingredients is an unsatisfying read. The two primary reasons for this dissatisfaction are the disjointed flow of the book and the abrupt ending. The narrative structure, with the shifting between the character’s perspectives between chapters, is not to blame for the disjointed flow. The fault lies with the inclusion of an extraneous character, Dan France, during Margot’s chapters. The author never provides a believable back story and purpose for Dan. So, this character’s constant inclusion in Margot’s section breaks up the flow of her story without anything that seems to justify his inclusion. Then, when the end does come it feels incomplete; it is almost as if there is a chapter missing. Overall, the book left me with the feeling of a great concept gone to waste.

The notion of Bernie Madoff as a femme fatale was interesting; however, the plot never moved much off the ground. The book focuses on Margot, a beautiful swindler who uses her sexual allure and ability to “read faces” as a way to cheat her male victims out of their investments. However, the story and the characters became increasingly bland as the book moved to a mild ending.

Comparing this effort to James M. Cain or Ian McEwan, as the cover suggests, is an affront to both authors. This novel is a lingering shadow of what it MIGHT have been. There is an interesting idea here but what suspense there might have been was hampered by the author's lumbering style. It was slow going and the cutting back and forth between the three characters made for a very convoluted rythym. And once "who" dunnit was revealed, the ending was not at all satisfying. It sort of just ended...life goes on, I guess. I will not read this author again.