When I was in high school I was surrounded by readers and they enjoyed reading Sidney Sheldon's books. Seriously, every recess or break time one of those Sidney Sheldon readers will sit beside you or in the corner and shouting and screaming. So I always curious of his works, and I tried one of his novel and it was good. Well, I was still young that time but I never been hooked reading Sheldon books.If I have time, I go to bookstores or online bookstores to buy some Sidney Sheldon's books. But I don't know the reason behind that. Maybe that time only Sheldon and Steel were the one who only grabbed my affection to read and buy books. So I stored them in my bookshelf and from then on, I never tried to open one until I realized my books were getting old and yellowed because of dust and unknown organism living in my room.Sidney Sheldon's first novel was Naked Face published in 1970 and it was nominated by the Mystery Writers of America for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel by an American Author. Well, as I said it was a good book but when you already read some of his novels, you can predict everything, his style never changed so do the twist in the near end of his books. Soon, in 1983-1984 the book was adopted and filmed before psychological forensic is widely accepted method of forensic crime-fighting work.Dr. Judd Stevens, a psychoanalyst in Chicago have been followed by an unknown murderer. The murderer who wearing mask and must be identified by his skills as a psychoanalyst or he will be accused as a murderer or he will be murdered next. It was started in a rainy morning, 10 days before Christmas when his one of his patients, John Hanson, a homosexual died and stabbed in the back. Everything changed that day and followed by a gore accident of her sexy assistant, Carol Roberts, who tied and poured with acid on her face and other parts.It was one of his worst days, in 10 days he will be killed or be saved from the hands of the criminals. As a doctor he must protect his clients secrets, their worst problems, or maybe they were the one who wanted to murder him? Too many suspect too little time. He must pursue his will to survive by using his skills in psychoanalysis. It was one of his interesting novels that deals with greatest mind of his time, the Naked Face, the true identity of a man of brute and murder. Two agents came and assist him as the story flows, Angeli and McGreavy, that will help him and guide him to his crime-fighting business.It was an interesting read but not as good as his other novels and not as bad as any novels published. He uses psychoanalysis as a weapon to solve the crime which is not yet widely accepted that time. Although his writing style never change from his other novels, the book is becoming predictable. From reading to the beginning till the end, you can predict the killer and some behind facts why they wanted to kill him. It was simple and recommended for those people who don't have time to read as well as wanted to be entertain by twists in the end. The cover looks creepy and old, but the movie poster looks great. The cartony looks and the broken glass made everything dark. O anyway, I want to watch the movie but I want to see the girl in nude covered with acid. Rating - The Naked Face by Sidney SHeldon, 2 Sweets and another year of happiness! (It was nice to read old books again, hay, wish my friends were still the same. I want to read books like this in the past but I was the one who took the other path. Anyway, It was an okay experience to read books like this, but still I recommend his other books like the Master of the Game and so on.)Challenges:Book #69 for 2011Book #42 for Off the Shelf!
The story concerns a psychoanalyst: his daily round of patients who range from the ordinary to the extraordinary. We have the philandering high powered executive who has gone off the rails having lost his wife and children in an accident whilst he was sharing a canoodly moment with one of his mistresses. There's one of America's foremost comedians who turns out, like so many of the world's funny men, to be wracked with inner pain.Then there are the murders! Someone is stabbed to death in a New York street wearing our hero's rain coat. Our hero's receptionist is then brutally murdered in their office. The net appears to be closing in on the good Doctor … the twists and turns are well thought out.I felt a couple of the characterizations were a bit off: "Friendly, Charles Friendly" at the Pan Am office went from being all smiles to 'get out of my face' within a nanosecond and that didn't ring true. On the other hand, the characterizations of the detectives in the book are good. Anne, the mysterious woman that the good Doctor falls for is as transparent as crystal glass but he doesn't see it: ah, the power of love! It's only the twist in her circumstances that we need spelling out for us, otherwise she's most definitely a bother.Some things got on my nerves: maybe Sheldon felt he was writing for a bunch of thickies when he put this together; but I really don't need authors to tell me the same thing over and over again. If I caricature what Sheldon has done, you'll see what I mean: the style I'm bothered about comes across like this:'Dr Evil, the most dangerous man on the planet walked over to our hero, smiled and said "Hey, I like the cut of your jib and I think I love ya!"'The action moves along and then when Dr Evil reappears, we are told something like this:'Dr Evil's car, a big black shiney Limo, glided to a halt at exactly the appointed spot. Dr Evil's intentions are not honourable: how could they be for someone so dangerous? 'Danger oozed out of every one of Dr Evil's pores as he wound down the window, that sickly sweet smile ruining an already ugly face.'Having said that, I realised that by the final third of the book that Sheldon had either lost this habit or I'd stopped noticing it … until page 219 that is when he did it again!"Even Judd found it hard to believe at this instant that this gracious, friendly Adonis was a cold blooded, psychopathic murderer."See what I mean?The star prize here, though, has to go to some of what happened on page 210. In the middle of a situation when our hero is really in it way up to and beyond his neck, he has learned almost all he needs to know about the gorgeous Anne, when ..."Judd steeled himself against the mixed emotions that were coursing through him. She did care!"I ask you. A room full of murderous, threatening men who are just waiting for the nod to do the man in and he thinks such pre pubescent thoughts about a woman whose character and motives he had completely failed to understand and yet with whom he thinks he fell in love. Unrea
What do You think about The Naked Face (1982)?
Sheldon's first novel. My ninth read. The book was well-written. It is simple and easy-to-read. I must admit that I found it quite offensive reading the words "he was a homosexual" followerd by "he was cured". We should all know by now that homosexuality is not a disease that can be cured, and it was disappointing to read from the words of my favorite novelist. But I just took a mental note of it and kept reading, making sure that part wouldn't affect my judgment on the novel as a whole. So the moment I finished reading the book, I did a little research. Turns out that in 1970, when the novel was first published, homosexuality was still considered a mental disorder according to the DSM-II, and it has not changed until it's seventh printing in 1974. It was such a relief...Back to the novel, it's not his best work but it is great for a first novel. It is amazing to see how much he has improved his writing and imagination over the decades. I definitely recommend this to everyone who likes some fast-paced reading.
—Katharina
I have read most books by Sidney Sheldon, and it's interesting reading this one, which was his very first work of fiction, after reading all his masterpieces. It's a good story and it shows elements of the kind of writer he was to become. His trademark hooks in every couple of pages is there, as well as unpredictable twists and a hyped-up ending. The main character is no Kate Blackwell or Noelle Page, but he has a brilliant and impressive mind which makes up for his less-than-captivating personality. One Sidney Sheldon trademark that I missed in this book was the detailed back-story of every character, which always makes me bond with them and feel more when the twists are revealed. It's an enjoyable read, for sure, and it is clear that Mr. Sheldon improved greatly in his later works.
—Andre
This book is about a psychoanalyst called Judd, who works in a office in New York, and has an assistant called Carol who used to be prostitute.One day a few days before Christmas, one of his patients(who was a homosexual) is found dead, wearing Judd's raincoat, and just the day after that, Carol is also found dead. Judd calls the police n investigations keep going on.Judd thinks it was probably to kill him.He had this patient called Anne, who was married, but Judd loved her. After she left, when he was returning home, he heard two people coming up the stairs, he thought they were the killers, he went into his office room,and called up Detective Angeli, who was one of the detectives handling his case along with detective McGreavy. When they arrived no one was there, so they didn't believe Judd. McGreavy thought he was making it all up,but Angeli was calm n tried to understand him, so Judd trusted him.Many days accidents, n many things happened that were meant to kill Judd.So he calls up another detective, who was very helpful, n always helped him survive, but Angeli told Judd not to meet him, n the next day that detective is found dead.An accident takes place to kill Judd, n he goes to the hospital, but he runs away from there thinking detective MCgreavy would come and arrest him, so he runs away with Angeli, n Angeli takes him to a place where Judd's death is guaranteed, he takes him to the person who's been trying to kill him the whole time.Angeli was with them. I turns out that, that person was Anne's husband, who wanted to kill him because hew thought she told him all his secrets n that she loves him.They take Judd to a place to kill him, n they beat him up really bad, but then they end up dying.And McGreavy comes and take Judd to the hospital telling him that he was coming to tell him that Angeli was involved.This book was AWESOME!!!It always kept me thinking who it could be, n the story totally twisted around.I could not put the book down!
—Pratima Das
