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Criminalul fără chip
O temă particulară, dar interesantă. Personajul principal Gabe suferă de
o tulburare neurologică rară despre care nici nu ne gândim că poate
exista cu adevărat. El poate vedea, dar nu poate recunoaște fețele
oamenilor.
Mulțumit să-și câștige existența departe de civilizație, el lucrează ca
astronom la un observator din cel mai uscat deșert al Pământului, unde
nu a mai plouat de 400 de ani, deșertul Atacama din Chile. Dar când este
martorul unei crime pe care nu o poate împiedica sau explica, Gabe se
trezește implicat într-o investigație cu consecințe dezastruoase. Pentru
a descoperi adevărul înainte de a fi arestat pentru crime pe care nu le-
a comis, Gabe trebuie să-și pună încrederea în trei străini: un tânăr
călător, un romancier și o femeie atrăgătoare.
Acestea sunt ingredientele unui roman deosebit, cu personaje captivante
și un final imprevizibil care invită cititorul la o lectură pe
nerăsuflate.
o tulburare neurologică rară despre care nici nu ne gândim că poate
exista cu adevărat. El poate vedea, dar nu poate recunoaște fețele
oamenilor.
Mulțumit să-și câștige existența departe de civilizație, el lucrează ca
astronom la un observator din cel mai uscat deșert al Pământului, unde
nu a mai plouat de 400 de ani, deșertul Atacama din Chile. Dar când este
martorul unei crime pe care nu o poate împiedica sau explica, Gabe se
trezește implicat într-o investigație cu consecințe dezastruoase. Pentru
a descoperi adevărul înainte de a fi arestat pentru crime pe care nu le-
a comis, Gabe trebuie să-și pună încrederea în trei străini: un tânăr
călător, un romancier și o femeie atrăgătoare.
Acestea sunt ingredientele unui roman deosebit, cu personaje captivante
și un final imprevizibil care invită cititorul la o lectură pe
nerăsuflate.
360 pages, Paperback
First published July 19, 2016
5 people are currently reading
818 people want to read
About the author
Lance Hawvermale
31 books48 followersUnder the female pseudonym of Erin O'Rourke, Dr. Lance Hawvermale published the thrillers SEEING PINK (2003) and FUGITIVE SHOES (2006). His poetry and fiction have garnered numerous awards. He is an alumnus of AmeriCorps, performing his service on tribal lands in Oklahoma.
Hawvermale holds a doctoral degree in educational leadership and has worked as a college professor, an editor, and a youth counselor. He lives in Texas with his family and their honey bees.
Hawvermale is represented by the Jonah Straus Literary Agency of New York.
Visit his website at www.lancehawvermale.com.
Hawvermale holds a doctoral degree in educational leadership and has worked as a college professor, an editor, and a youth counselor. He lives in Texas with his family and their honey bees.
Hawvermale is represented by the Jonah Straus Literary Agency of New York.
Visit his website at www.lancehawvermale.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
February 8, 2017
4 stars
This is one of my quirky reads that I enjoy so much. This novel was recommended in Mystery Scene magazine for independent publishers and I am so glad I gave this a try.
Gabe Traylin is face blind. This is a true condition whose medical term is prosopagnosia. Gabe cannot make out details of peoples faces. He usually distinguished people by their walk or voice or clothing. When he looks at a face it blurs the image so nothing is distinguishable. Gabe is an astronomy graduate student working at an observatory in the Chilean desert. He does not like to explain his condition to anyone as people begin to treat him differently when they realize he cannot see them.
While out in the desert at night on a break from his data collection, Gabe witnesses a man running across the desert. Of course he cannot see who the man is or what the man is running from. Suddenly the man in the desert drops and as Gabe goes to check on him realizes the man has been shot. He goes into the observatory and raises the alarm. When others return, the body is gone but a great deal of blood is left behind.
In the meantime, a set of adult twins, brother and sister, are flying into Chile to meet an author of a science fiction novel. The brother is developmentally challenged and his sister is his caregiver. The brother has a difficult time reading but he can read this one science fiction novel and his sister has made it her quest to find out how and why.
A strange book that I found to be wonderful as all these characters come together. The characters are wonderfully drawn and I began to care about all of them. Also, the desert plays a large role in this novel. But, fair warning - this is not a book for the squemish. I did not know that when I picked up the book but found out rather quickly. For me, I'm okay with it (what does that say about me?).
Highly recommend for a change of pace. And it has a great opening line...
"No rain has fallen here in four hundred years".
This is one of my quirky reads that I enjoy so much. This novel was recommended in Mystery Scene magazine for independent publishers and I am so glad I gave this a try.
Gabe Traylin is face blind. This is a true condition whose medical term is prosopagnosia. Gabe cannot make out details of peoples faces. He usually distinguished people by their walk or voice or clothing. When he looks at a face it blurs the image so nothing is distinguishable. Gabe is an astronomy graduate student working at an observatory in the Chilean desert. He does not like to explain his condition to anyone as people begin to treat him differently when they realize he cannot see them.
While out in the desert at night on a break from his data collection, Gabe witnesses a man running across the desert. Of course he cannot see who the man is or what the man is running from. Suddenly the man in the desert drops and as Gabe goes to check on him realizes the man has been shot. He goes into the observatory and raises the alarm. When others return, the body is gone but a great deal of blood is left behind.
In the meantime, a set of adult twins, brother and sister, are flying into Chile to meet an author of a science fiction novel. The brother is developmentally challenged and his sister is his caregiver. The brother has a difficult time reading but he can read this one science fiction novel and his sister has made it her quest to find out how and why.
A strange book that I found to be wonderful as all these characters come together. The characters are wonderfully drawn and I began to care about all of them. Also, the desert plays a large role in this novel. But, fair warning - this is not a book for the squemish. I did not know that when I picked up the book but found out rather quickly. For me, I'm okay with it (what does that say about me?).
Highly recommend for a change of pace. And it has a great opening line...
"No rain has fallen here in four hundred years".
September 8, 2016
First Sentence: No rain has fallen here in four hundred years.
Gabriel Traylin witnesses a murder outside an observatory in Chili’s Adacama desert. By the time the police arrive, the body has disappeared. What is found is a bag containing a severely mutilated body. Due to prospagnosia, a neurological condition which prevents one from being able to differentiate facial features, Gabe can’t describe the killer, or the victim, to the police, making him a suspect. With the help of three strangers, Gabe sets out to find the killer he thinks of as The Messenger.
How fascinating to be in a setting new to most readers—“Four hundred years, not a single teardrop from the sky. … Precipitation here was measured in millimeters, and even then it came only as an infrequent fog—and to learn about a neurological condition of which I doubt many readers have heard, let alone trying to imagine living with—“Gabe has grown up recognizing is mother by her clothing, her slender wedding band, and of course by her voice.”
Such unique characters Hawvemale has created; Gabe who can’t recognize faces, Mira and her brother Luke who can only read the words in one book, Ben the author of that one book which is the only book he ever wrote, and Vicente who is Gabe’s friend from the observatory. Yes, there are a few TSTL (too stupid to live) moments, but they make a weird sense when you consider the characters.
The author has an interesting use of language—“Gabe closed his eyes and wove that name on the loom in his mind. Alban Olivares. He bound the threads around the soldier’s fallen body, making him into something more than just a runner in the night. By christening him, Gabe created him.”—so much so one is inclined to check whether it is a translation. The plot is highly unpredictable. You never quite know where it’s going, but it’s filled with excellent twists. When danger comes, it is an unexpected and shocking to the reader as if it was real. The story has a good ending, even if rather unbelievable.
“Face Blind” is hard to describe but completely absorbing. It may not be the best written book, but it definitely a compelling read.
FACE BLIND (Susp-Gabe Traylin-Chile-Contemp) – Good
Hawvemale, Lance – 1st in series
Minotaur Books – August 2016
Gabriel Traylin witnesses a murder outside an observatory in Chili’s Adacama desert. By the time the police arrive, the body has disappeared. What is found is a bag containing a severely mutilated body. Due to prospagnosia, a neurological condition which prevents one from being able to differentiate facial features, Gabe can’t describe the killer, or the victim, to the police, making him a suspect. With the help of three strangers, Gabe sets out to find the killer he thinks of as The Messenger.
How fascinating to be in a setting new to most readers—“Four hundred years, not a single teardrop from the sky. … Precipitation here was measured in millimeters, and even then it came only as an infrequent fog—and to learn about a neurological condition of which I doubt many readers have heard, let alone trying to imagine living with—“Gabe has grown up recognizing is mother by her clothing, her slender wedding band, and of course by her voice.”
Such unique characters Hawvemale has created; Gabe who can’t recognize faces, Mira and her brother Luke who can only read the words in one book, Ben the author of that one book which is the only book he ever wrote, and Vicente who is Gabe’s friend from the observatory. Yes, there are a few TSTL (too stupid to live) moments, but they make a weird sense when you consider the characters.
The author has an interesting use of language—“Gabe closed his eyes and wove that name on the loom in his mind. Alban Olivares. He bound the threads around the soldier’s fallen body, making him into something more than just a runner in the night. By christening him, Gabe created him.”—so much so one is inclined to check whether it is a translation. The plot is highly unpredictable. You never quite know where it’s going, but it’s filled with excellent twists. When danger comes, it is an unexpected and shocking to the reader as if it was real. The story has a good ending, even if rather unbelievable.
“Face Blind” is hard to describe but completely absorbing. It may not be the best written book, but it definitely a compelling read.
FACE BLIND (Susp-Gabe Traylin-Chile-Contemp) – Good
Hawvemale, Lance – 1st in series
Minotaur Books – August 2016
September 6, 2016
This book had an uphill battle for me from the first page after these lines:
Not usually the best sign when I'm already rolling my eyes at that point. I thought the premise was interesting, but it wasn't enough to save what felt like self-indulgent writing.
The billion crystal stars overhead were no more mysterious than this desolation, this empty skull of earth. The complete and bleak denial of all life. "Like a few women I've known," he said to himself, only half meaning it. Always the comedian, even when he was alone. He should've done stand-up at eighteen instead of Stanford.
Not usually the best sign when I'm already rolling my eyes at that point. I thought the premise was interesting, but it wasn't enough to save what felt like self-indulgent writing.
June 10, 2023
Un thriller captivant și plin de suspans cu protagonistul principal pe nume Gabe Traylin, un astronom care lucrează pentru lucrarea de doctorat la observatorul din deșertul Atacama din Chile. El sufera de o afecțiune pe nume prosopagnozie și din pacate nu poate distinge fețele oamenilor. Într-o seară iese afară la o țigară și vede cum un bărbat este împușcat. Aleargă la bărbat, vede foarte mult sânge și se întoarce la observator să sune la politie. Când se întoarce la mort, observă că a dispărut. Acest gând nu îi dă pace și continuă investigația pe cont propriu. Șeful lui de la observator nu este mulțumit de acest aspect și îl amenință pe Gabe că îl dă afara, dar Gabe nu se lasă. Oare ce va descoperi?
April 2, 2023
Maybe more 2.5*. If it wasn’t for the main character, it would be a 3*. Very sorry but Gabe kinda sometimes got on my nerves. His decisions were so illogical that it made me get off the story. I know some people wouldn’t mind this « I can’t recognize faces but I still have this urge to pursue the killer! » mindset. I’ll admit it goes well with this ethereal feeling that I didn’t expect in this story. But, seriously, so many dumb decisions!
Another thing, but I think that’s totally on me: his condition. I don’t want to blur it as I’m not sure if it’s a spoiler, so I’ll say light spoiler?
I’ve had the feeling, when reading the summary, that Gabe was the suspect because of his condition and that the cops didn’t believe in « blind face ». But no! He never tells people! Only at the end, in the epilogue!
Another thing that pissed me off: Gabe says that he never talks about his condition because people then sees him differently, wether as a mentally disabled person or as a liar. But when I’ve searched for it, I’ve seen that Stephen Fry and Brad Pitt also have it. The sad reality of life is that an illness or condition will always be more accepted when famous people also have it.
I know it’s a novel and we sometimes need to turn a blind eye on illogical stuff, but really? A doctor note and the knowledge of « those actors also have it! » should have help him be more open about it. Oh well, like I said, it’s probably more of a me problem.
Enough of the bad, now with the good: I love all the other characters! The twins relationship was sweet and the relationship between Luke and Ben was fun! I think I’ve continue reading just for them. I also liked Mira, but I wish a bit more for her. And I’ll say that the mystery was nice.
So yeah. A long read, but still glad I’ve finished it.
Another thing, but I think that’s totally on me: his condition. I don’t want to blur it as I’m not sure if it’s a spoiler, so I’ll say light spoiler?
I’ve had the feeling, when reading the summary, that Gabe was the suspect because of his condition and that the cops didn’t believe in « blind face ». But no! He never tells people! Only at the end, in the epilogue!
Another thing that pissed me off: Gabe says that he never talks about his condition because people then sees him differently, wether as a mentally disabled person or as a liar. But when I’ve searched for it, I’ve seen that Stephen Fry and Brad Pitt also have it. The sad reality of life is that an illness or condition will always be more accepted when famous people also have it.
I know it’s a novel and we sometimes need to turn a blind eye on illogical stuff, but really? A doctor note and the knowledge of « those actors also have it! » should have help him be more open about it. Oh well, like I said, it’s probably more of a me problem.
Enough of the bad, now with the good: I love all the other characters! The twins relationship was sweet and the relationship between Luke and Ben was fun! I think I’ve continue reading just for them. I also liked Mira, but I wish a bit more for her. And I’ll say that the mystery was nice.
So yeah. A long read, but still glad I’ve finished it.
April 7, 2019
A quirky but exciting read. So different from books I usually read. The characters are unique. Gabe who has a rare neurological disorder that I had no idea really existed. He can see but can't recognize faces.Then there is Mira and her twin brother, Luke. Luke can only read the words in one book but his savant-like talents are amazing at times.Ben is the author of that one book that Luke can read, is the only book he ever wrote. There are also other characters who work with Gabe at an astronomy observatory in the remote Atacama desert in Chili. This desert has not received a drop of water in 400 years and takes on the persona of Mars in its desolation and appearance. Somehow all of these characters get entangled in the middle of unsavory characters whose crimes are so abhorrent you cringe while reading it. Luckily the details of the crimes are divulged but in a succinct way and doesnt give you so many details that you just want it to stop.
January 6, 2018
A gift from my mother, "Face Blind" was a nice change of pace from the more academic prose I was entrenched in. Despite a lackluster performance from our stories protagonist, the supporting characters and unique landscape compelled me to read on and consequently made this mystery-thriller my first completed novel of 2018. While the analogies and metaphors felt forced and awkward throughout the book, which clashed with the more serious tone of the killers crimes, the overall product was entertaining and engrossing. 3/5 Stars.
December 1, 2025
Certainly better-than-average in its category, the book starts with not just one but two mysteries, each very difficult to explain. One plot involves the unlikely murder of an anonymous victim in the middle of the northern Chilean desert. The other one is the curious case of a Down syndrome-afflicted boy whose sister desperately wants to understand why he is unable to read except for one book from one unknown author, which he can read fluently. We follow the two stories in parallel for about one-third of the book, until they merge and everybody spends a lot of time trying to escape a very deadly foe. To complicate things even further, the main protagonist is face blind - he can't recognize anyone using his eyes. I thought that this was a terrific idea, which Lance Hawvermale uses well. The writing is lively and very well-paced, and, in particular, I loved the dialogues and the occasional humorous touch. I had two issues. First, the various locations are not described or characterized enough. More than once, people were somewhere in the desert but I had no idea where exactly. There seems to be two scientific stations in the story, but I'm not even sure of this fact - maybe it's just one? Secondly, one of the two major mysteries is never solved, though Hawvermale found an uplifting exit to this problem (I won't say more to avoid spoiling it). Altogether, a very enjoyable book, but I couldn't bring myself to give it the highest rating.
February 8, 2023
Am început cartea asta cu gândul că voi face o pauză între lecturile despre care trebuie să scriu. Mi-a plăcut subiectul descrierii și am zis că merită să-i dau o șansă, în ciuda numărului mic de cititori de pe Goodreads. Și surpriză... momentul meu de respiro a fost complet anulat, pentru că m-am trezit prins într-o poveste excelentă, cu multe ițe încurcate și suspans de zile mari. La început am avut impresia că totul nu e decât o glumă, însă foarte repede lucrurile au escaladat, și am fost proiectat într-un loc întunecat și înghețat, în care doar speranța și morala mai au puterea să schimbe ceva. Personaje unul și unul (în cel mai profund sens al expresiei), un deșert în care moartea nu mai are nicio forță și o istorie sângeroasă, marcată de dispariții și crime înfiorătoare. Dar s-o luăm cu începutul...
Recenzia:
http://www.cartilemele.ro/2023/02/rec...
Recenzia:
http://www.cartilemele.ro/2023/02/rec...
May 5, 2020
Face Blind by Lance Hawermale. Gabe Traylin is face-blind, unable to tell one person from the next. Gabe finds himself drawn into an investigation with disastrous consequences. Unable to provide a description of the killer to the police or explain his own erratic actions, he becomes their suspect in a series of horrific and unexplained mutilations.
3 / 5 stars The story didn't flow and at times became too much to understand. There was so many things to focus on, from booking writing to murders and gabes inability to recognize faces. The middle was unbearable I was almost seconds away from DNFin. All that took away from the mystery factor this book lacked only until the end I felt a connection but it was still so much to recover from.
3 / 5 stars The story didn't flow and at times became too much to understand. There was so many things to focus on, from booking writing to murders and gabes inability to recognize faces. The middle was unbearable I was almost seconds away from DNFin. All that took away from the mystery factor this book lacked only until the end I felt a connection but it was still so much to recover from.
February 12, 2019
This book was in the bargain section at my local Chapters, and I used the GoodReads ranking to see that it was almost a 4/5, so I picked it up for $8.
What an interesting, and fun read (yes, despite the killing and torture, there were fun/funny moments).
All of the characters (except the evil ones) were instantly endearing, and Lance Hawvermale uses a unique (at least to me) literary device: his main character is "face blind". You will learn about this (actual) condition in the book.
This was a good
What an interesting, and fun read (yes, despite the killing and torture, there were fun/funny moments).
All of the characters (except the evil ones) were instantly endearing, and Lance Hawvermale uses a unique (at least to me) literary device: his main character is "face blind". You will learn about this (actual) condition in the book.
This was a good
December 24, 2017
***Received via Goodreads Giveaway***
Two seemingly unrelated plots pull together in the end. Really well written, at some point quite gruesome, but I loved this.
Glad that the biggest mystery wasn't solved.
Two seemingly unrelated plots pull together in the end. Really well written, at some point quite gruesome, but I loved this.
Glad that the biggest mystery wasn't solved.
December 19, 2017
What happens when the eye witness to a murder has prosopagnosia - the inability to recognize faces. An interesting first novel that takes place in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.
A shout out to my library for purchasing this book after I asked about it.
A shout out to my library for purchasing this book after I asked about it.
January 4, 2019
Incredibly interesting premise for the book paired with engaging characters and an unpredictable ending left me reading and turning the pages as fast as I could to find out how it ends!
Fantastic book. Would highly recommend and would love to read again.
Fantastic book. Would highly recommend and would love to read again.
July 17, 2017
I wasn't sure whether I'd like this very unique plot, but the story was engaging, well paced & thought provoking.
July 29, 2018
Weird book. I was intrigued by the title and summary.
August 23, 2018
Great book.
January 29, 2019
I had a hard time getting into this book, and I honestly didn't think I'd like it very much, but once it gets going, it doesn't stop! I am just so amazed by this book.
March 5, 2019
I loved the story! I think this book was so well written and the characters interesting! The action started right from the beginning and I just couldn’t put my book down.
August 9, 2019
Heart-pounding. Try as I might, I couldn’t put together the pieces of the mystery before reading all the way through, nor did I see the final start-to-finish twist coming.
February 3, 2020
Very interesting and most unusual plot. Catches your interest and will not let go. Highly recommend.
November 22, 2020
Very strange
June 15, 2021
This was an interesting story as it had a very different take on a murder/mystery novel. A story worth reading.
March 14, 2023
O poveste care te captivează, care te tine cu sufletul la gura pana in ultima clipa...
November 6, 2023
RAO 2022
October 28, 2016
Review to come.
March 3, 2021
2.75 stars
September 19, 2016
I’ve always thought two of the more intriguing protagonists finding themselves in a world of mierda were from the 1966 stage production of Wait Until Dark (later adapted into the Audrey Hepburn film), featuring a blind woman going up against three men who have invaded her home, and Jonathan Nolan’s 2001 short story “Memento Mori” (also made into a movie—Hollywood knows a good thing), where a man with backwards amnesia continually tattoos himself to remember imperative details related to his wife’s murder. Both of these individuals persevered without the benefit of certain functions that most of us take for granted. In Face Blind, Lance Hawvermale should have Hollywood warming up their keyboards because he has tapped into a different, brilliant deprivation plot device: prosopagnosia.
According to the National Institutes of Health, prosopagnosia (more commonly known as face-blindness) is described as “a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize faces…[resulting from] abnormalities, damage, or impairment in the right fusiform gyrus, a fold in the brain that appears to coordinate the neutral systems that control facial perception and memory.” Some cases are so severe that the person can’t recognize their own face in the mirror. Actor Brad Pitt had brought some attention to the subject in 2013 when he came forward revealing a mild form of the condition.
Face Blind is a smart thriller that has the right balance of suspense, character development, and action mixed. The key to its success—akin to Wait for Dark and Memento—is that we put ourselves in Gabriel’s POV. How would we handle a debilitating condition, and would we be as courageous in moving forward to discover the identity of a cold-blooded murderer? And then, there’s the quirky element of prosopagnosia fueling the plot to maximum effect. In a medium that is saturated with go-to potboilers, Lance Hawvermale’s novel shines above it, with vibrant writing and exhilarating flair.
Expanded review at Criminal Element http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/....
According to the National Institutes of Health, prosopagnosia (more commonly known as face-blindness) is described as “a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize faces…[resulting from] abnormalities, damage, or impairment in the right fusiform gyrus, a fold in the brain that appears to coordinate the neutral systems that control facial perception and memory.” Some cases are so severe that the person can’t recognize their own face in the mirror. Actor Brad Pitt had brought some attention to the subject in 2013 when he came forward revealing a mild form of the condition.
Face Blind is a smart thriller that has the right balance of suspense, character development, and action mixed. The key to its success—akin to Wait for Dark and Memento—is that we put ourselves in Gabriel’s POV. How would we handle a debilitating condition, and would we be as courageous in moving forward to discover the identity of a cold-blooded murderer? And then, there’s the quirky element of prosopagnosia fueling the plot to maximum effect. In a medium that is saturated with go-to potboilers, Lance Hawvermale’s novel shines above it, with vibrant writing and exhilarating flair.
Expanded review at Criminal Element http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/....
September 7, 2016
Do a quick Google search for face blindness and right away you'll come upon some very interesting facts; Oliver Sacks was face blind, for instance, Chuck Close, too—which is even more fascinating when you think of the facial mosaic paintings that are his signature. More interesting, or unnerving, is the image search. Visuals abound of how a face blind person sees the world, jarring simulations that are almost impossible to imagine, easier perhaps to grasp total blindness than being blind to just one feature. Lance Hawvermale's Face Blind is a mystery/thriller whose protagonist is afflicted with the titular condition, Prosopagnosia as it was officially coined in the 1950s, and it certainly makes for a clever premise for a novel—after all, cinema has played with the trope of blind protagonists being terrorized in thrillers since Wait Until Dark through this year's Don't Breathe, but the face blind protagonist is an inventive twist in a book full of them. To wit, setting a thriller in the remote Chilean desert near an astronomer outpost with an ensemble that ranges from a washed up black sci-fi writer and his paraplegic scientist brother to a pair of twins, one who has Down syndrome and may have psychic abilities, to Gabe, the face blind astronomy grad student, to a menacing Chilean police force, and throwing them into a violent blender—apt, when one considers some of the more gruesome touches throughout the story—with some of Pinochet's old torture hench men (maybe) in pursuit is not a run of the mill narrative, but then Prospopagnosia isn't a run of the mill condition, either. As thrilling and often jaw-droppingly icky as Face Blind can be (wagons and backpacks, folks...) , it's more a character study than a horror novel, and it goes much deeper than it may appear on first glance. Recommended for readers who won't—or can't—judge a book by its cover.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews