When people reach a certain age, or gets a bad illness like Dementia or Alzheimer's, they usually end up in a care facility, and the visits from friends and family becomes fewer and fewer, these people hold on to the hope that somebody special will come to visit them at least one more time. And Paul does that for them, becomes a family member they so desperately want to see and talk to. It sounds so noble, even though his motivations may not be. Five minutes and a good deal of industrial strength swearing later, Stewart pulled the car across traffic on the North Circular,” A Man With One of Those Faces is the first book in Caimh McDonnell's Dublin Trilogy, which melds fast-paced action with a distinctly Irish acerbic wit. What I didn’t like the most were long passages at the beginning. That and more point of views made me confused and I started understand what was going on in the middle of the book. Well, I can just say I didn’t like author’s writing style. Paul started life as the son of a single mother - the father had abandoned them, I believe. When he was 6 years old, he first met his great-aunt Fidelma, who refused to help them. He met her a second time at 12, after his mother died, and his aunt wanted nothing to do with him. But perhaps she had some tiny shred of decency left because when she died, she remembered him in her will. She left most of her estate and money to Donegal Donkey Sanctuary, but left him the use of one of her houses and a very small stipend to last until he got a job. In return, he had to perform 6 hours a week of charity work. He was not too happy, and dedicated the rest of his life to hating her, making do on the small stipend, and not getting a job. He would even visit her grave regularly to curse her.

If you like stories by Colin Bateman, Carl Hiaasen, Tim Dorsey and Janet Evanovich then you’ll enjoy A Man With One of Those Faces.” **** – The View from the Blue House (see full review here) AND…….. PHEW……. It’s a grand start, the man with one of those faces is straight into it’s patter, the main character is a dry individual & one I immediately took to with his sarcastic humour & observations of life. Very funny is Paul from the off….. or is that his real name? Exactly. The patient knows enough to get that they should know who this person is. So when I walk in and say hello-' Bunny McGarry...is a legend. He’s a tad...let’s call it rough around the edges, but he’s a good copper." Part of the charm was the liberal use of Irish slang, though I often felt ignorant when the author spoke of different accents, or cultural references to Leitrim etc. I think the average age of the characters in the book hovered in the late 50's, as many of the main characters were quite aged, and no less interesting for that.Paul has a special job. Due to his generic facial characteristics, he manages to pretend to be whatever the feeble minded residents of an old people home think he is. On some occasions he is a long lost son, other times a estranged sibling, whatever might help an old tired soul to find inner peace. Brigit is the nurse who finds Paul all these hopeless cases. One day she wants him to see one more “client” a dying man who never had any visitor. Unfortunately, the old man confuses Paul with someone not so dear and tries to kill him. He ends up stabbed in hospital and the old man dead. From here everything goes nuts, people are trying to kill him, he is running but doesn’t know why and from who and the comedy is on. Brigit is the expert help as she read all the detective stories ever. One of the other interesting characters is Bunny, the owner of the above mentioned farts, an excellent policeman but with brutal methods and a foul mouth. Brigit, for her part, was fighting off a rather heavy dose of the anti-climaxes. All those Scottish crime novels, containing more dead bodies than Scotland actually had living people, had left her with high expectations of the criminal justice system.

The literary debut of Quiv McDonnell turned out to be very successful, "A Man with One of many Faces" was nominated for a CAP Award, although it should be clarified that with this book the author made his debut only as a novelist, previously worked a lot and successfully as a screenwriter on Irish and British television, now lives in Manchester. Thanks very much. I'm trying to eat bran for breakfast these days so I am assuming that means I'll live forever. I'll be pissed if it doesn't! …more Hi Mark,

a man with one of those faces

Did she?” “It was in The Herald,” she confided. “Apparently you can’t move for Chinese lads these days. I don’t know what’s happening at all. You’d be afraid to go out at night.” It’s a tried and tested device in crime novels, to have an innocent bystander turned into a runaway criminal through mysterious conspiracies. That, and having a beautiful, funny girl as his partner in crime and/or assistant detective.

Everything seems to be going along swimmingly until Nurse Brigit suggests Paul visit a gentleman who hasn't had any visitors and has little time left on the planet. This is the beginning of a colossal misunderstanding which will put himself and Nurse Brigit's lives in danger. Not knowing who they can trust, forces them on the run. Desperately, Paul and Brigit receive help from police officer Bunny McGarry to investigate who and why people want them dead. A man with one of those faces is the perfect book to read when you need some cheering up. It is a thriller and a murder mystery but most of all it is very funny. An example of the type of humor is below so beware it is not for the squeamish.A great novel, a non-trivial plot, an interesting intrigue. there is a wildly charming Irish Dirty Harry. And the opportunity to laugh heartily with a book is worth appreciating in our dark times.