The Faceless - Softcover

Chilling supernatural horror and the police procedural collide in this absorbing tale of contemporary characters sucked into a web of mystery and fear. As local townsfolk in a northern city disappear masked men with sinister links to the past haunt the streets. Unconnected events begin to align as Detective Chief Inspector Renwick realises these mysterious figures have chosen targets and an even bigger plan.

In the Lancashire town of Kempforth, people are vanishing. Mist hangs heavy in the streets, and in those mists move the masked figures the local kids call the Spindly Men. When two year old Roseanne Trevor disappears, Detective Chief Inspector Renwick vows to stop at nothing until she finds her. In Manchester, terrifying visions summon TV psychic Allen Cowell and his sister Vera back to the town they swore they’d left forever. And local historian Anna Mason pieces together a history of cruelty and exploitation almost beyond belief, born out of the horrors of war – while in the decaying corridors and lightless rooms of a long-abandoned hospital, something terrible is waiting for them all.

Simon Bestwick lives in Lancashire and is the author of a previous novel, Tide Of Souls, two short story collections, A Hazy Shade Of Winter and Pictures Of The Dark, and a chapbook, Angels Of The Silences. He’s also written numerous scripts for radio. His short fiction has appeared most recently in the anthologies Where The Heart Is, Never Again and Solaris Books’ End Of The Line. His novella The Narrows was shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award and reprinted in Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror Of The Year, while the Daily Telegraph praised Tide Of Souls for "the quality of the writing. Simon Bestwick writes with great imaginative flair and an excellent grasp of colour and narrative pace."