The Smiling Man

A Novel

By: Joseph Knox

Narrated by: Lewys Taylor

Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

From the acclaimed author of Sirens, damaged Detective Aidan Waits returns in a mind-bending new thriller that will have everyone asking, “Who is the Smiling Man?”

Aidan Waits is back on the night shift, the Manchester PD dumping ground for those too screwed up for more glamorous work. But the monotony of petty crimes and lonesome nights is shattered when he and his partner are called to investigate a break-in at The Palace, an immense, empty hotel in the center of the city.

There, they find the body of a man. He is dead. The tags have been cut from his clothes, his teeth have been filed down, and even his fingertips have been replaced...and he is smiling.

But as Waits begins to unravel the mystery of the smiling man, he becomes a target. Someone wants very badly to make this case disappear, and as their threats escalate, Aidan realizes the answers may lie not only with the wealthy families and organized criminals connected to the Palace, but with a far greater evil from his own past.

To discover the smiling man’s identity, he must finally confront his own.

©2019 Joseph Knox (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Vivid, visceral.... This ambitious book will appeal to those who like particularly grim story lines and deeply flawed protagonists.” (Publisher's Weekly)

"Knox takes his place alongside such writers as Val McDermid, David Peace, and Sophie Hannah in making Manchester a destination for crime fiction.” (Kirkus)

"Gritty as hell. I loved it! A great urban cop thriller" (Ian Rankin, New York Times best-selling author of the Inspector Rebus novels)

Well done

Yes this book is layered/complex and yes there are time jumps that seemingly come out of nowhere/make it a bit difficult to stay on top of everything but the book is excellent with a great ending. The narration is also excellent.

Complex mystery

Great “read” with wonderful voicing. I think it would be good to read his previous book first but one can still enjoy this one. Pay attention, though, not one you can skip over or listen with only one ear. I may even listen to it again. The main character is a disgraced cop in Britain who is on the night shift; no one seems to trust him or give him the time of day, including his night shift partner who takes advantage of him frequently. They come upon a dead man in a closed hotel who has died with a smiling grimace on his face and the case is to solve his identity and his mode of death.

Convoluted story & confusing narration

Time jumps, too many characters, and confusing plot not helped by narrator’s lack of pauses between scenes and failure to distinguish character voices (especially Waits vs Sutcliff).