In Your Face

Lily Pascale #2

by Scarlett Thomas

Lily receives a troubling phone call from Jess, a freelance journalist. Jess wrote a feature on three women who were victims of stalking, and on the day it was published, all three women were found murdered. When Lily arrives in London to investigate, she finds out Jess is missing and has left behind a mysterious trail of clues.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Novels, Chick Lit

250 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1999

About the author

Scarlett Thomas was born in London in 1972. Her widely-acclaimed novels include PopCo, The End of Mr Y and The Seed Collectors. As well as writing literary fiction for adults, she has also written a literary fantasy series for children and a book about writing called Monkeys with Typewriters. Her work has been translated into more than 25 languages.

She has been longlisted for the Orange Prize, shortlisted for the South African Boeke Prize and was once the proud recipient of an Elle Style Award. She is currently Professor of Creative Writing & Contemporary Fiction at the University of Kent in the UK. She lives in a Victorian house near the sea and spends a lot of time reading Chekhov and Katherine Mansfield.

She is currently working on a new novel and various projects for TV.

Reviews

[Trin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three women are murdered in quick succession. The only thing they have in common is that they are all featured in a magazine article hitting newsstands the day of the murder. Still trying to live down her 15 minutes of fame from having solved the murder in Dead Clever, Lily Pascale agrees to come to London to help an old friend from university, who penned the article, figure out what’s going on.

I enjoyed this more than the previous one. Thomas’ prose is compulsively readable, as usual, and the plot here was less ridiculous and convoluted, which I appreciated. There were two rather painfully headdesky moments—one in which Lily is challenged to solve a puzzle with a solution that’s hilariously obvious, and then everyone is incredibly impressed when she pulls it off, as we the readers are surely also supposed to be; and one “allow me to fall into your clutches, evil murderer!” incident that made it hard for me to suppress a bellow of frustration while on the bus. But in general this is a well-written mystery with a complex and interesting amateur female detective at its core.

[Marne Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really fun murder mystery, and I didn’t guess the killer until right before the book revealed it, which to me is the ideal situation. If you’re my age and were in college in the 90’s, all the time-period references will take you back, even if you’re not from the UK. All in all, I actually preferred this early work to some of Thomas’ more serious novels. (I’m looking at you, The Seed Collectors.)

[Jago · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I think I preferred the Devon setting of the first book and I missed Lily doing some teaching in this one. But Star was a great addition and I'm looking forward to the third and final Lily Pascale novel.

[Viki Holmes · Rating 3 out of 5]

And so after feeling conflicted but compulsive with the first Lily Pascale mystery, Dead Clever, I raced straight into In Your Face with mixed feelings, and was left with those mixed feelings all the way through. Even more so than in its predecessor, there is so much of Lily's life that makes for a fascinating read. I wanted to hear more about her life as a university lecturer, her familial interactions, the ongoing mixup with Fenn. The mystery in itself was so much less fascinating than these aspects. This was a very frustrating, though compulsive read. Much of the "hook" for this series is the fact that Lily is a graduate specialising in crime fiction who becomes involved in real life crimes. And yet, other than some incidental references to Inspector Dupin from The Murders in the Rue Morgue nothing is really made of this. It's all very tell don't show. Where are the connections? Where are the references made to the crime fiction Lily is reading, or the links she makes according to her literary knowledge? Surprisingly absent. Trouble is, I've been reading these books just after some pretty spiffy crime fiction that balances sublime characterisation with genuinely intriguing and well-thought out mysteries: check Tana French andKarin Slaughter and Lily Pascale, however charmingly of her time (and my own!) simply does not compare. Again, though, as an addition to Scarlett Thomas's work, an interesting curiosity with which to chart her development into the amazing writer she is today.

Mild spoilers follow below:

First: in a situation where three women have been murdered and a fourth woman disappears, all of whom are connected by a magazine article, I wouldn't just be looking for the fourth in the hope that she might be able to help with inquiries. Surely a full on search with concern that the woman in question is missing, presumed murdered, would be initiated?

Secondly, the whole Fenn/Bronwyn pregnancy issue. It is one thing for Lily to hold the moral high ground and be all "I'm not going to interfere with your life and your choices. I have feelings for you but you have chosen to do the honourable thing so go ahead." But later in the novel it is revealed that not only does Lily believe Bronwyn's child has not been fathered by Fenn, but Bronwyn herself all but admits this to be the case. I'm sorry, as a best friend, and as someone who is in love with him to boot, I simply do not see why Lily would not even attempt to argue the case. "Why throw your life away on a child THAT ISN'T EVEN YOURS?">

[Ape · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was rather good. Odd that I've had this book in my possession for a couple of years and have only gotten around to reading it now. I am on a mission to read all of Thomas' books as I just love her writing. But I suspect my slow pace on this one is due to the previous book I read. The first books she wrote were these three Lily Pascale murder mysteries. This one, In Your Face, is book two. In usual form, I read them in the wrong order, so I started with number three, which was good, then went back to number one, which honestly, I don't remember being that impressed with. And I suspect that might be why I didn't feel like plunging straight into the second one. So then it got missed under some other books, and suddenly a couple of years have passed by.

So, set in the 1990s, these are the tales of 20 somethings who are achieving and being sucessful since uni. Since solving the murder at the university where she was working as a literature lecturer, she has now hit the summer holidays. She gets an odd call from an old uni friend whom she's not heard from since. The girl, Jess, is now working as a journalist. She's just had an article about stalking published. And on the day it was published, the three women with their true life stories in the article, have been brutally murdered. Even more disturbing, all murdered in the sites where they'd had their photos taken for the article. Having heard about Lily's recent success, Jess asks her to come to London to help, as she's terrified. But when Lily gets there, Jess has disappeared.

This is a rather cunningly plotted little murder mystery, and keep paying attention, because even when it seems that she's just randomly wandering about telling you pointless facts about things, she's actually often dropping some clues. I figured out a wee bit earlier than Lily who the murderer was - oh, I'm so smug. She seems to have missed one of her own clues. ***CLOSE EYES NOW IF YOU DONT WANT TO KNOW*** Early on the book Jess's boyfriend Tyler gives Lily a note that Jess wrote before she ran off, with a riddly like clue in it. Now, much later in the book Lily gets hold of the letters that Jess's own stalker sent her a few years ago. She realises the handwriting there matches the writing on the little note - ergo Jess didn't write it. She never thinks to herself, but hang on, the boyfriend passed this to me, and at the very least he ought to have seen it wasn't Jess's writing. And of course the only reason anyone ever thought he was indeed the boyfriend was that he happened to be in the flat when they went over. Anyway, no detective is perfect. =) Good book!

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a basic, well-done murder mystery about a young journalist goes missing after the three stalking victims she has written about are all killed on the same day. Four stars because Lily Pascale - the sleuth - is a woman of my generation who I can relate to, and because Scarlett Thomas is probably my favorite writer, having gone on from these earlier genre-based mysteries into later books (PopCo, The End of Mr. Y) that blend the mystery genre with philosophy and serious cultural critique. I completely envy her career.

[Celia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second Lily Pascale mystery from Scarlett Thomas - I didn't like this as much as the first. The format - involving switches between Lily trying to solve the murders, and an interview with the murderer himself - didn't appeal to me. As with the first book in the series, I didn't find the motive or the murders themselves particularly convincing, which detracted a little from the story. However, Lily carries the story, and I was pleased at how her relationship with Flynn ends up.

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of Scarlett's more interesting work that make the Lily Pascale books seem a little bland by comparison, but these mysteries are really pretty solid.

I did manage to forget the twists since the last time I read this, but the whole thing came together nearly, and I really enjoyed the pacing and setting.

It's not quite as fresh and polished as dead clever, but it fits in nicely as the second book of the series.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a big Scarlett Thomas fan and I quite enjoy the character of Lily Pascale and the way that she sees the world. However, it may have just been the timing, but I found this story a bit too unpleasant. I can't fault Scarlett at all - she created a very convincing world in the book - but, just not much of a stomach for the nastier side of life.

[An · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, dammit, i'm enjoying a mystery series. shut up.

no real notes on this one, other than the fact that i'm hoping its only a three-book series, because i cant afford to get sucked into a long-running mystery series... i have a reputation to re-build.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm reading everything that Scarlett Thomas writes, even her early formulaic works. And these are, but they are also pretty interesting for crime/mystery novels. I just miss the in-depth thoughtfulness and incredible intelligence of Thomas's later works.

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

In case you hadn't figured it out I'm a huge Scarlett Thomas and anti mystery fan. READ HER NOW!

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable enough murder mystery, although the least favourite of the 5 Scarlett Thomas novels I've read to date.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun, quick, sharp mystery. Thoroughly enjoyable.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a 250-page murder mystery in which the plot does not really start advancing until the last 100 pages. The book focuses a lot on Lily Pascale, the sleuth who solves the mystery; it's almost more a novel about Lily and her personal life than about the murder. It's not that Lily is not an interesting character in her own right (she is), but the balance between her life and the mystery is askew, and for that reason I rated this at 3 stars instead 4 stars.

When the mystery aspect of the novel comes to the fore in the last 100 pages, the book really takes off and is a great read. I enjoyed the unraveling of the mystery and resolution. This is a quick, easy read that would be a great beach read or plane read while flying to the beach.