cover image Face Blind

Face Blind

Lance Hawvermale. Minotaur, $26.95 (320p) ISBN 978-1-250-07833-9

Gabe Traylin, the hero of this well-paced mystery from Hawvermale (The Discretionist), works at a research outpost in the Chilean Atacama Desert and has managed to cover his inability to recognize human faces by relying on voices, clothing, and other signals. While walking one night, he sees a mysterious figure who seems to get murdered, but when he calls in the authorities, the body has vanished, and his further investigations only anger his employers and bring more questions from the authorities. He eventually crosses paths with Mira Westbrook, who has traveled to Chile with her severely dyslexic twin brother, Luke, to find a reclusive science fiction author, Ben Cable, with whom Luke, who can’t read, has become inexplicably obsessed. Hawvermale throws in plenty of action while allowing characters time to discuss and explore the series of mysteries they face. If the plot gets decidedly muddled—and it seems unnecessary for Gabe’s condition to be the focus of the title—the unusual setting and well-drawn characters still intrigue. [em]Agent: Jonah Straus, Straus Literary. (Aug.) [/em]