Detective Sam Shephard is one of my favourite characters in crime fiction - a headstrong policewoman full of humanity who has starred in four great reads laced with humour, personality, and personal life amongst the compelling crimes, all wonderfully set in the southern part of New Zealand. It's a tremendous series, one of my faves, that's been shortlisted for major writing awards on three continents. I want more of Sam, so wasn't sure how I'd feel about Vanda Symon taking a break and writing a darker, standalone thriller. But wow. FACELESS is amazing. An over-worked, under-appreciated office worker trudging through a mundane but high-pressure life. A young sex worker struggling to survive. A homeless man who's a shell of who he once was. Three overlooked people whose worlds collide, violently. While some readers may miss the lighter touches of the Sam Shephard books, Faceless is truly a terrific, well-paced, well-plotted dark thriller that delivers not only into a gripping storyline, but delves into issues of homelessness, misogyny, shrivelled dreams, loyalty, grief and loss, and how we can be surrounded by people we don’t really ‘see’. Tense and thought-provoking; very highly recommended.

This book had me at page one. It's taut, powerfully and extremely moving. It has a plot which never let's go. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes their crime a bit different.

Wow! This is a crime thriller that I absolutely devoured. I wasn't expecting such an immersive reading experience. The Auckland setting was one I am completely unfamiliar with, though the author did her utmost to make it seem as though I had visited many times. Each of the characters was so very authentic that I 'knew' them all. At first I felt quite sorry for Bradley, but events soon transpired that my sympathy soon turned to distaste and even repulsion. Bradley morphed from a milquetoast into an angry, domineering, bully concerned solely with his personal power and control over others. Max was a pitiable character who one could not help but feel empathy for. He seemed to hold his secrets close to his chest. Billy was a strong and beautiful young woman. Despite her lot in live, she remains stalwart in her quest for life - a better life. Meredith was formidable - in a good way. I loved her. This novel spoke to the worldwide homeless problem. It served as a needed reminder that the 'faceless' person you pass in the street, the one whom you can't quite make eye contact with, is a person who used to have a life. What separated them from that life and where they are now could be any number of reasons, but we must remember that they are still valuable - still worth redemption. This is a novel which I can confidently recommend to all who appreciate an exquisitely written crime thriller. The characters fairly leapt off the pages. The short, tension-filled chapters ensured a fast-paced plot. The ending was perfect. I loved it.

Goodness me but Vanda Symon has taken a darker turn. After her fantastic Sam Shephard police procedural series with the effervescent Sam whose personal life is at least as bumpy as her police officer existence, Symon has turned to an altogether more sombre place. Faceless is a taut, suspenseful thriller. Beautifully written in short, punchy paragraphs, it is a story about toxic masculinity meeting strong empathic characters and the explosion that occurs as a result. Billy is a teenage Polynesian woman living on the streets and creating imaginative art that goes well beyond tagging. Max is also living on the streets, a down and out whose mental health has brought him down and kept him there, but whose wits are intact. Vanda Symon tells her story from their perspectives as well as from the perspective of Bradley, the perpetrator and Meredith Peters, a local Police Detective. These differing perspectives help to keep pushing the plot forward as well as delivering inner voice information about the struggles that each character is experiencing. In Max and Billy’s cases this makes them incredibly compelling characters. The more so as their backstory emerges and we understand what has brought this pair to an unlikely friendship and how their backstories have led them to live on the streets. Vanda Symon shines a light on the terrible scourge of homelessness and the way that society chooses not to ‘see’ the people who have fallen into the cracks. This is doubly so if that person is indigenous; as if that somehow makes them lesser beings. It is a constant battle to stay alive, to try to keep warm, to have to forage in bins for food and to be ready to fight for your life, or to huddle tortoise like into a ball if those assaulting you are bigger and you are outnumbered. Everyone on the streets has a story, but how many of us ever stop to ask what that story is and how we can help? Bradley is a middle aged, middle ranking office worker. He’s over-worked, bullied by his manager and feeling the stress. He works really hard to provide for his wife and two daughters, but feels under-appreciated at home as well as at work. Seeking relief, he decides one evening to pay for some appreciation but when things don’t play out the way his imagination suggested it should, he turns ugly and lands himself with a bigger problem than he could have anticipated. Bradley is a monster in a suit. A man whose ego has been dented so considerably that he yearns for the supremacy that comes from the total submission of others to his will. He finds that once exercised – once his rage has been expunged, his whole sense of self is reinvigorated and his power flows through his body and sharpens his mind. A man who yesterday felt in control of nothing in his life is now the master of his universe and that toxic mentality is what drives Bradley to take the wrong decisions over and over again while blaming others for his choices. Symon paints a compelling picture of how a situation can quickly get out of hand and her tense, riveting thriller is a fast paced, dark and violent read that feels genuine. She exposes the hypocrisy of Billy’s parents. Churchgoers whose life is spent in service to the church, they were more concerned for how Billy’s actions would reflect on them than they were in caring for their daughter. That hypocrisy also shows its face in how DS Meredith Peters is treated as a woman in the workplace, yet it is her compassion that will ultimately lead to the police deciding to take an interest in the case of Billy’s disappearance. I absolutely loved this novel which shows what a great writer Vanda Symon is. She handles darkness just as well as she mixes light and shade in her Shephard books. Her characterisation is spot on and she has created a layered, rich reading experience that delivers not only a riveting crime thriller, but also a thought provoking look at those less fortunate and how we treat them. There but for the grace of God, this reader thought while reading. Though it is dark, Faceless is ultimately a story about loyalty and friendship, tested in adversity. It is a beautiful exposition of grief, of feeling lost and alone and ultimately of the fear of hope and in overcoming that, finding self-belief and rediscovering self-respect and a sense of self that makes you feel better about yourself. Verdict: A brilliantly written, thought-provoking dark thriller that is propulsive and compelling and which stays in the mind. Faceless is a real winner from a hugely talented writer.

New Zealand’s Queen of Crime, Vanda Symon writes thought- provoking and attention grabbing storylines and her latest thriller “FACELESS” has been written to coincide with Women’s Month and Homeless Women’s Day in March. - A stressed, middle-aged man picks up a teenage escort and commits an unspeakable crime, unaware that a homeless man – her only real friend – will do anything to find her. Although the main crux to the story in ‘Faceless’ is quite simplistic, it was very well written and certainly hit the mark regarding the plight of the homeless and how they are often shunned by society. So many different circumstances find people without a fixed abode, withdrawing from normal society and it was interesting how the contrast between Billy, a young girl ostracised by her family and her much older male friend Max escaping a huge emotionally traumatic event, compared to each other. Creating a thriller with a middle aged family man, suffering from work related stress and his unexpected violent reactions after picking up an escort, made this a very thought provoking story regarding mental illness, the survival of the homelessness and the power of friendship and complexities of family bonds. ‘Faceless’ is a slow burn, character driven story where the adage ‘less is more’ truly comes into play and with an increase in tension towards the denouement, I really enjoyed reading this book and would happily recommend. #Faceless - 4 stars