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Title: Faces

Author: Martina Cole

Narrator: Nicola Duffet

Format: Abridged

Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-29-07

Publisher: Headline Audiobooks

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Suspense

Publisher's Summary:

Just before Danny Cadogan's 14th birthday, his father leaves. Having drunkenly run up a gambling debt he cannot pay, Big Dan Cadogan takes the easy way out. Leaving behind his wife and children to face the wrath of the men sent to collect the debt. Determined to protect his mother, brother, and sister, something changes in Danny and, overnight, he turns into a young man set on making his way in a violent and dangerous world. He becomes a Face. Not just a Face, but the most feared Face in the Smoke. Out for all he can get. At any cost.

But Danny's ruthlessness on the streets of London doesn't stop at his front door. He rules his wife, Mary, and his children with an iron will - and his fists. But if Mary breaks her silence, it could shake Danny's criminal empire right to the very core. And for a Face at the top of his game, there's only one way to go. Down. Because, after all, debts can be paid without money.

Set in the heart of London's criminal gangland, from the 70s right up to the present day, Faces is gritty, gripping, and utterly unforgettable.

Members Reviews:

Way too long

I liked it but it was hard reading kind of book you take up put down take up again.

The violence was too much and it was realistic but depressing

Inside the British Mobster Scene - Become a "Face"

I was lucky to get an advanced copy of this excellent novel from an author I did not know of. Based on this book, I will know her going forward. It is an excellent introduction into the world of the British mobster scene. In some ways it parallels "Wise Guy" (the book version of Goodfellas) however, Ms. Cole shows that these British thugs have very few rules of conduct.

Danny Boy Codigan is a fearsome "Face" which means he is a mobster that everybody knows and must give respect to (like a "made man" in the US mob). Ms. Cole starts the book with a glimpse of how the tale might end. We get the sense that everybody is plotting Danny Boy's death but afraid of the consequences should the plot fail. The book then flashes back to the beginning with a gripping story of how Danny got to be so powerful yet so hated. Danny was not even a teenager when two loan sharks appear at his door demanding payment for his father's (Big Danny) gambling debt. Big Danny had abandoned his family to pursue his own interests and didn't care that those interests may be detrimental to them. Danny Boy shows no fear to the loan sharks and when Danny Boy's mother attacks them, Danny Boy joins the fray. This incident changes Danny Boy forever, changing him into the dark yet flamboyant up and coming Face that people start to talk about.

Danny Boy is both charismatic and vicious at the same time. To those that don't know his vicious side, he is a "star" to be admired. However, behind closed doors he is brutal, especially to his own family. This book is an excellent read but those with a weak stomach for violence will be taken aback especially when Danny Boy deals with those that cross him or those he thinks need to be taught a lesson.

I give this book five stars and my only objection is that what happens usually involves pipes, knives and weapons of that sort and very rarely guns. So I wondered throughout why his enemies never gang up on him with firearms to take him out.

Get to the point.

I had previously read Martina Cole's, "Close". I loved the book, the characters, and the plot.