This was good...but not good enough. The story was there, enough to keep you turning the pages, but another quality, that which makes a novel linger in your brain and being for some time afterward...was lacking. Maybe it's that the characters weren't interesting/memorable enough. The writing is fine, a bit bland. But the story's there. It could have been great but was only okay.I'd read another novel by Gottlieb in the hope that it's better. I really enjoyed this book. It was a great look into the minds of people and how one person can use knowledge to completely manipulate others and become the perfect criminal.It was hard in the beginning to see how each story would tie together. The lives of John Potash and Lawrence Billings are very different, separated by the country and seemingly not connected at all. But as the story unravels, you can see just how Billings’s actions, through Margot, directly affect the life of Potash.And then you have the story of Margot, told as she recovers from a horrible "accident." She can't remember who she is, but slowly, her life comes back to her. You see what led to her being the person she is and you see that she was good at one point, but life happens and you see through her slowly recovered memories what made her the perfect criminal she is throughout the rest of the novel.What I enjoyed most about this book is I was less interested in figuring out the "who" of the crime, and more invested in the "why." I wanted to know more about the people and their actions instead of trying to figure out what happened. I greatly enjoyed the look into human action and what can lead a person to make the choices they do. It was a wonderful read and I plan on picking up Gottlieb's other books soon.
What do You think about The Face Thief (2012)?
Not my style - may have been the mood of the day, but I'll not bother with him further.
—Brad
