‘The Thief of Faces is not your average novel. If you’re expecting a cookie-cutter book that sticks to narrow genres and identikit characters, this is not for you. Want something different, exciting, and engaging on several levels? Something that says something about the world, but entertains and captivates the imagination while doing it? Read on – just like I did.

Part speculative thriller, part super-hero epic with a cerebral spin, part political high-stakes adventure. The Thief of Faces delivers on these, and far beyond.

From the very start, I came to appreciate that Rowley is a master world-builder, but there is measure and control in his writing. It flows with supreme pacing, there is action on every page, but also time to breathe. The characters are well crafted and the blending of our world and the fictional world is both vibrant and tangibly real. Especially when it comes to London.

In Robert Orhe we have a complex anti-hero of our time. A man with supreme gifts, a man with a past, a man who can literally be anyone. But Robert is no saint. He’s a complex character who feels flawed. He has the rough texture of someone who is real and acts like he’s navigated the political world and has the internal scars to prove it. Rowley crafts this world and makes the reader feel immersed, as if being transported to a pulsating VR universe where we question everything. 

I am reluctant to give spoilers away, but Robert isn’t your usual hero who can survive a boss-level villain at breakfast, a hundred trained assassins at lunch, then take on a nuclear strike for dinner without a single bruise. As the story develops, there is a true vulnerability to Orhe. The Follen and Boucher present threatening stakes not just for Orhe but for the world, and more importantly, his family, and those he realises he loves.

The true genius of this story is in how this speculative world draws subtle and clever parallels with the one we live in. The stories on the news. The division in our society. The risks we face. It’s all there wrapped in a compelling and unique speculative adventure that lingers in the mind.

At the beating heart of this novel is a love story, with imperfections, with complexities, with a satisfying conclusion.

And the best thing is… the cover says this is just the first book of the series! 

I feel this is a world that Rowley has been building his whole life, and we’re joining at the start. I can’t wait to see where it leads next.’