A Man With One of Those Faces

Paul Muchrone is a ‘granny whisperer’ – a what? I hear you say? What he does is visit the elderly in hospital and sits with them as if he is a relative. This all came about when he was visiting an old lady on the ward and he discovered his talent.


“While I was there, another lady on the ward – late stages of Alzheimer’s amongst other things – mistook me for her brother. They knew he wasn’t coming back from America and she had some things she needed to say, so – ”
“You did your trick,” she finished.

Paul goes onto explain that he helps out where needed, aided by just having one of those faces:


He had nothing that came close to qualifying as a distinguishing anything. His every facial attribute was a masterpiece of bloody-minded unoriginality, an aesthetic tribute to the forgettably average. Collectively they formed an orchestra designed to produce the facial muzak of the gods.

which is what brings him to St Kilda’s hospice where nurse Brigit Conroy asking him to visit one last patient – this time for some grandpa whispering for a change, but things don’t turn out quite as expected and Paul ends up in hospital. From here on in, things just get worse as the pair realise that they have somehow blundered into something neither had bargained for, and it soon looks like Paul’s life might be at stake.

I get that this all sounds rather farcical but the crime element of the story soon develops complete with a true-crime writer, the police and some terrifying gangsters making up the fantastic assortment of characters.

Much of the humour originates from Paul with his observational humour adding a cutting edge rather than detracting from the crime spree spreading across the pages of this surprisingly action packed thriller. Not only that we are treated to Paul’s backstory from a life in care to his stint on the hurling squad under the watchful eye of Detective Sergeant Bunny McGarry to his Great-Aunt Fidelma who was now controlling his life from beyond the grave. All of that sounds quite sedate compared to the situation he finds himself in where the only person he can trust is Brigit, and she’s a bit of a character too!


Her mam had often said that Brigit’s problem was she thought she was too good for an ordinary life, but she didn’t think that was fair. Brigit just felt that an ordinary life wasn’t good enough for anybody. It felt like she had been born in the safest and most boring time in human history. Everywhere the world had been discovered. Even outer space, it seemed, was full of, well just boring old space. There had to be more. There had to be some adventure, some magic, left in the world.

And then we have Detective Inspector Jimmy Stewart is just about to retire and he’s showing the ropes to and simultaneously trying to increase Detective Wilson’s film knowledge, to no avail. While on duty charged with Paul’s protection they come across something dodgy…


It surely wasn’t some kind of coincidence What were the odds that he and Wilson had stumbled upon an unrelated ambush? This was Dublin: assassination wasn’t that common a pastime.

With such a bunch of enterprising and entertaining characters this book was an exceptionally good read. The plot was well-thought out with the links to a past crime woven seamlessly into the present while the novel moves at a real pace, flipping easily between humour and terror so that I spent most of the book sat on the edge of my seat while chuckling. All the while there was an authentic (in my head anyway) Irish accent narrating the book to me. I really appreciated this lighter style of crime fiction which made a refreshing change. For those of you who read Caimh’s entertaining post on my blog yesterday, only you can decide if this is too Irish and too funny – I say when is the next book going to be published?

I’d like to thank McFori Ink who gave me the opportunity to read this book. This unbiased review is my thanks to them for a riotous read.

Published UK: 30 August 2016
Publisher: McFori Ink
No of Pages 328
Genre: Humorous Crime Fiction
Amazon UK
Amazon US

Review

I loved this book! It appeared without the usual publishers’ fanfare and hyperbole of many a lesser book and so I feel lucky to have come across such a gem.
Now,
a bit about our hero…

Paul Mulchrone is twenty-eight years old and “five foot nine of sheer ordinariness”. He is a man whose only friend seems to be Mickey, the delivery driver for a Chinese takeaway, The Oriental Palace which proudly boasts of an in-dining area (with ambience).

Pauls Great Aunt Fidelma, whom he’d only met twice and didn’t much like, died and left everything to the donkey sanctuary. She didn’t forget Paul though, he was to be allowed to live in her house and was to receive 500 euros a month - with conditions!
1: He could live there until he found gainful employment
2:He must not get into any trouble with the law and
3: In order to improve himself he must undertake six hours of charitable work each week, to be monitored by Mr. Greevy of Greevy and Co. solicitors.
When Paul learned of these conditions he determined that, just to spite Aunt Fidelma, he would live off her 500 euros forever - hence he lived a very frugal life!

…and now just a little bit about the story

We meet up with Paul at the hospice where he is carries out his charitable duties; he becomes whatever the confused patient wants him to be, son, nephew, grandson, Paul didn’t mind.
He was about to go home and was wanting Nurse Brigit Conroy to sign his work note when she asked him a for favour, Nurse Brigit has a bit of a mouth on her and despite having worked five minutes overtime that week Paul found her to be a woman who was difficult to refuse.
The old fella she wanted him visit mistakes Paul for someone else, someone he obviously disliked because, with the last of the strength left in his body he attacked and stabbed Paul in the shoulder. At the hospital Dr. Sinha, trying to cheer up Paul tells him that being stabbed is better than being shot, and how much nicer it was to be stabbed by someone you didn’t know rather than by someone you did know, as that wouldn’t be very nice at all.

Before long it became apparent that somebody somewhere thought that Paul knew something about something, and for that he must be taken out.
Paul had no idea what that ‘something’ might be.
Not having much faith in D.I. Jimmy Stewart and his sidekick Wilson to protect them, Paul and Nurse Brigit go on the run.
Somewhere along the way the awful police officer Bunny McGarry intrudes himself into the case, Paul having been “one of his boys” in his hurling team from way back, justified Bunnys poking his nose in to everything.

Paul and Nurse Brigit are given temporary shelter by Dorothy, who believes that Paul is her grandson Gregory. In an effort to remain ladylike, Dorothy transposes the first letter of every cuss word with an “m”, so “muckin’and “ munt” appear quite frequently.
Eventually their hideout is discovered and that is when the real adventure begins, Nurse Brigit, whose only experience of crime is from watching the telly is secretly thrilled to be involved, she decides they must investigate. That is, until it gets really dangerous!

This is humorous crime at its finest, droll, witty and highly entertaining. The characters are well fleshed out and engaging - wait ’til you meet the very pregnant Nora Stokes, Pauls solicitor. - What a Woman!

The writing is skilled and captivating, I am eagerly awaiting the next book.


Review copy provided byMcFori Ink via NetGalley

When I happened upon the tail end of an interview with this author on Radio Ulster’s Arts Extra programme, I liked the sound of both author and book. There was some discussion about the genre into which this novel falls, but having now read it, even if it requires a new genre of one, it’s no odds, this is just a smashing read.
Paul Mulchrone, charitable lay-about, gets caught up unwittingly in old unfinished business of some high profile criminals. His only choice is to run. He tries to solve the mystery in hand, with the help of two unlikely assistants, before the bad guys catch up with him.
If this feels a bit panicked at the start, and if the great dialogue overshadows the quality of some of the narrative, so what. Decent story, good characters with grin inducing lines make up for everything.
Maybe I was overly influenced because I too wanted control of Australasia in Risk. And in one of those common co incidences, Micky Dolenz is picking the tracks of his years this week on Radio 2. It turns out he was a classical guitarist – Segovia style, but hired as the drummer. You can see I enjoyed the Monkees references, and am now much enlightened on their place in history.
Not many protagonists feel uncertain about what to do in the final action scenes of a crime novel, but typically Paul and Brigit did. The epilogues too are the icing on the cake.
Looking forward to a sequel, only hoping it can include the now retired DI Stewart whose lines were very entertaining. For the record, Caimh McDonnell’s understanding of his readers’ attributes are on the money, and did not influence this review at all!
Thanks to Netgalley and McFori Ink for this copy.
I’m off the register for free stories…..

Do yourself a favour and read this book - it is brilliant and very witty. Can't wait for a follow up, or anything else by the same author

The following review has been scheduled to appear on my blog in November, and a shorter version of it currently appears on Goodreads. The link below to my blog will lead to the home page until the post is published, but should work after that!

I exist in the middle of a difficult Venn diagram sometimes: I enjoy crime fiction, particularly when there's a magical or humorous element, but I'm also pretty squeamish and can't handle too much gore. However much I try to kid myself that I can. Turns out experiencing near-perpetual nausea actually makes it harder to deal, not easier.

I requested A Man With One Of Those Faces from NetGalley in the hope that it would exist in the same part of the diagram, mostly because it was shelved under 'humour' as well as under 'mystery & thrillers', and that struck me as a good sign. It turned out that my hunch was correct, and this ended up being an enjoyable read.

It had just enough tension and murder to keep things interesting, but avoided major gore or body horror. There was also plenty of humour to keep things light: some of the witty one-liner variety, some of the kind where it's a deadpan statement that's only funny in context. I found myself highlighting a fair few parts that made me snigger.

It's set in Dublin, which makes a nice change -- I haven't read a lot of Irish crime fiction, and there's something refreshing about people getting their heads smashed in with a hurley rather than the usual weaponry. (Although you'd think after all the medieval Irish lit I have to read for uni, I'd be sick of that kind of thing.) Not to suggest that it's full of cliches or anything, because it isn't, but it's impossible to overlook the Irishness of this.

I don't know if everybody has a sort of mental voice when they're reading, but I really wish mine was capable of an Irish accent so I could have experienced this more accurately.

I enjoyed the combination of characters, who ranged from a fierce old lady to a heavily pregnant lawyer to a criminal who would probably have benefited from some family therapy. Even the main character Paul, who is supposedly forgettable because he's got 'one of those faces' and could be anybody, has plenty of character and depth.

Even better? There was no romance, which is remarkable for a book where the main male and female characters are thrown together into terrifying circumstances. Here and there I felt almost certain it would end up with them kissing or something frustrating like that, but it didn't, and that definitely pleased me.

I don't have any particular critiques to make about the plot -- it was unpredictable but not impossible to follow, with enough threads to keep the pacing up even when one aspect wasn't developing for a while. I got a tiny bit confused with the actual reveal / denoument: it could probably have been stated more explicitly instead of leaving the reader to join up all the dots, but after a few pages it was clear what they were saying had happened.

My reading of and ability to review this book probably suffered because I mainly read it late at night -- I started it at 2am because I make bad life choices -- and that makes giving specific details a bit harder. However, despite the circumstances I found it an engaging read with interesting characters, and just the right balance of tension and humour to keep me interested.

Plus, unlike other books I've read lately, it managed not to gross me out with gore in the process. Which is pretty impressive when you consider how much murder there was.

Oh ye Gods, where to start…….genre? Um, suspense/police procedural/hilarious barely controlled Irish mayhem. Box ticked.

Meet Paul Mulchrone. He’s a 28 year old Dubliner dedicated to being a permanent thorn in the side of his dead great aunt’s lawyer (the aunt is dead, the lawyer is just irritated). After ignoring him all her life, she left a provision in her will for him to receive 500 GBP a month until he found a job. Oh, and he has to do 6 hours/week charity work & stay out of trouble. It was all going so well.

Paul has one of those faces. Everyone thinks they know him from somewhere. So he spends 6 hours each week visiting an old folks home where residents mistake him for their long lost brother, neighbour or grandchild. RN Brigit Conroy signs off his hours which he gleefully presents to Auntie Fidelma’s lawyer in exchange for another month’s keep.

He has his regulars but one night Brigit asks him to visit Martin Brown, a cantankerous old man who is dying. Hopefully he’ll mistake Paul for a family member & anyhoo, what could go wrong?

Well….a lot actually. By the time the dust settles Paul is in the local A&E, a hitman has been hired to kill him and the Gardai have a few questions about the body he left behind.

What follows is a mad tale of mistaken identity, gangsters, bent cops, murder & a decades old kidnapping. There’s even a kitchen sink. It’s an entertaining combination of hair raising encounters & hilarious observations sure to appeal to fans of the Coen brothers. Think “Fargo” but with Irish accents.

Chapters alternate between several characters’ POV so we’re kept up on side stories that tie in to the overall plot. The dialogue is sharp & full of vernacular that is frequently laugh out loud funny if not downright inappropriate in some scenes. Only a people who spent years enduring the Troubles could face impending death with a shrug. The peripheral cast is large & there’s not a dud in the bunch. Standouts include the deadpan DI Jimmy Stewart, uber pregnant lawyer Nora Stokes & the unintentionally funny Dr. Sinha.

It’s a fast paced story that keeps you giggling on the edge of your seat while you cheer on Paul & Brigit in their quest to keep breathing. Recommended for fans of Carl Hiaasen, Stuart MacBride, Jay Stringer & Tim Dorsey.

I picked A Man with One of Those Faces because it was a mystery, it was set in Ireland, and it was supposed to be funny. To be honest, I didn't have super high hopes for it.

Sometimes it's really good to be wrong!

Author and television writer Caimh McDonnell writes an intriguing tale of suspense with lots of good laughs. This book is just a great ride, from the first page to the end. Although this is his first novel, I sincerely hope it's not his last.

Unemployed Paul Mulchrone does charity work to continue receiving a stipend from his late Great Aunt Fidelma. The work he chooses is to visit the old and infirm in hospitals, acting like whoever they think him to be. It's easy enough, as he has one of those faces. All is well and good, the oldsters are visited, Paul gets his paperwork signed off on, and he gets his monthly not-really-enough-to-live-on money, which is okay because he warms himself on his resentment of Great Aunt Fidelma and the hoops he has to jump through for her.

And then Nurse Brigit asks Paul to visit just one more dying man. Paul agrees for the trade-off of getting a ride home in her car instead of having to take the bus. He goes to visit the old man, who of course, recognizes him immediately. I mean, he just has one of those faces.

And then the old guy tries to kill him.

From there, a series of dangerous yet hilarious circumstances takes Paul on the run for his life. A cast of well-drawn and interesting characters join in, making the adventure a real treat for readers.

This book has so much going for it--a strong plot, a true sense of place, characters you want to get to know better, suspense, wit, and an exceptionally easy-reading style. It may not be the obvious choice, but it's definitely the out-of-left-field surprise that makes you sit up and laugh out loud.



Galleys for A Man with One of Those Faces have been provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

I selected this book based on the cover, thinking it looked quirky and interesting - what I wasn't expecting was to be laughing out loud, reading sections out to my partner and wanting to start again when I finished it!!

I know that I have read it unable to pronounce ALL the Irish names but that added to the character of the book - yes I honestly feel that the book itself was a character and I was drawn completely in.

The last comedian written book that left me with a lasting impression was Sean Hughes The Detainees and personally Caimh McDonnell has just trounced a long-time favourite of mine.

I felt like I was on the run with Paul and Bridget - I want to play Risk with Dorothy and I NEVER want to bump into Bunny!

I really do hope that there is more where A Man with One of Those Faces came from, brilliantly and carefully written with sarcasm and wit aplenty, a generous dash of comedy a proper crime caper.

Fecking Brilliant!

I loved this - it was fastpaced, humourous, acerbic, a runaway train barrelling down the tracks towards an unlikely conclusion. Cannot wait for the next tome from Caimh.

Back in September 2016 when my husband was still in his thirties, when Honey G was nobody special (?!), when Ore Oduba was just that guy from BBC Sport and The Great British Bake Off was still on the BBC, I hosted a guest post from debut crime thriller author Caimh McDonnell to celebrate the release of A Man With One of Those Faces. If you missed that post the first time around, or if you would like a quick recap then please click here. It's worth a read as Caimh writes about why he hates comedic crime, despite writing comedic crime (and being a standup comedian...go figure!).

After hosting that post I was very keen to read A Man With One of Those Faces. It's been sat on my Kindle for a little while now, trying to tempt me away from my reading schedule. Then one day I thought to myself, it's nearly Christmas which means a bookish treat is in order. So my bookish treat to myself this year was squeezing A Man With One of Those Faces in when I should have been reading future blog tour books (whoops!). And WHAT a treat it was!

A Man With One of Those Faces centres mainly around three characters. Professional granny whisperer, Paul Mulchrone earns a measly living by carrying out a set number of hours of charity work as dictated by the will of his very dead, yet completely bonkers great-aunt. Searching for the path of least resistance and being a man with one of those faces, Paul kicks off a career in granny whispering. By visiting local hospices and hospitals Paul encounters the heroine of the story, the crime fiction obsessed Nurse Brigit Conroy who through no fault of her own, unwittingly gets Paul stabbed. Being stabbed is only the start of it and before long Nurse Brigit and Paul are running for their lives. DS Bunny McGarry runs the local hurling club where all the local lads, including 12 year old Paul Mulchrone played. That was until a catastrophic falling out between Bunny and Paul, which Paul still holds a fierce grudge about. But that doesn't matter to Bunny; Paul is still one of his boys. With an admirable devotion to his sport, Bunny never leaves the house without his hurley to hand and boy, he is not afraid to use it! *ouch*.

The plot was very good with some great twists but for me, this book was all about it's enchanting cast of slightly crazy, somewhat violent characters who I ended up adoring. I WANT to read more about these characters as I feel a real fondness and warmth for them, they're flawed people but that adds to their crazy appeal. Don't get me wrong though, this book is action packed with shootings, crazy serial killers and hitmen. Blimey, I loved it!

I found the smaller, less significant characters had an endearing pull about them too. I don't tend to remember the supporting cast very often but I know this lot are going to stay with me. Such as creepy balloon man Phil, gun-wielding octogenarian Dorothy and 'days from retirement' but married to the job, DI Jimmy Stewart.

I fell completely in love with Paul, Nurse Brigit and Bunny and I am excited that Caimh McDonnell is about to publish book two, The Day That Never Comes. (Psst, I'm on the blog tour for TDTNC on 25th January 2017 with another brilliant guest post from Caimh; one for the diary, perhaps?)

Would I recommend this book? I most definitely would! It's funny, it's very Irish and my heart hasn't warmed to such a unlikely bunch of heroes for a long time. I can't wait to read The Day That Never Comes and have Paul, Nurse Brigit and Bunny back in my life. A very well written debut thriller that shows a real understanding of the author's charming characters. Superb!

Five out of five stars.

I chose to read and review an ARC of A Man With One of Those Faces. My thanks to Elaine Ofori, McFori Ink and NetGalley for the review copy.

Achingly funny situational thriller - this man must write more

Paul Mulchrone is the sort of fella that wears an extra three jumpers in Winter instead of turning on the heat. He's a cheapskate and is also down on his luck. He's doing community service of sorts in a nursing home, pretending to be the long lost son of several confused residents when a dying man mistakes him for an enemy and tries to kill him.

He thinks this is the last of his bad luck until another attempt is made on his life and it's then that he must go on the run and simultaneously figure out why people have it in for him.
Luckily, a nurse from the nursing home, Brigit, feels guilty about the initial injuries he sustained and vows to stay by his side and help him solve the mystery. She has a bit of an obsession for true crime stories and fancies herself a bit of an amateur detective. She's also well versed in Dublin gangland sagas, which ultimately comes very much in handy.
While those two are gallivanting around, Detective Jimmy Stewart (not that one) is trying to find them before someone makes a third, successful attempt on Paul's life.

This is one of the wittiest, well written books I've read in a really long time. The dialogue between all of the characters flows beautifully and sings from the pages. And that's another thing, the characters were so well developed that I felt like I had a really good grasp on their motivations, so even when the plot could have been considered far fetched, it was still completely believable. I can see this making an excellent film or TV adaptation, as it would work well in either medium.
I deducted a point in my rating for this book on Goodreads because I felt that at times, there was so much detail that it slowed the story somewhat. That said, I enjoyed reading the book throughout, so it didn't impact how much I relished reading Paul and Brigit's adventures and the ending had me glued to my kindle, making me late for the cinema!

If you enjoy Irish wit, drama, thrillers, crime, unsolved mysteries and dark humour, then this is very much the book for you. I was really sad to get to the end of this one and have no more Paul, Brigit, Jimmy and Bunny to read about so I was delighted to hear that Caimh is writing a sequel!

I LOVE THIS ONE, WAS REALLY FUNNY. LOVE HOW HUMOR AND MISTERY WERE COMBINE AND WORKS PERFECTLY!

I think we are in the presence of a great new comedic voice for crime fiction. When it was over I found myself missing the characters of Bright and Paul, which is always a good sign. This really is a fun and amusing caper with a case of mistaken identity at its heart.

If you're looking for amusing characters woven into a fun mystery narrative this is a must. I understand book two is coming out too so I look forward to that.