Customer Reviews

Faces in the Fire

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Unless you've read a lot of books that start with chapter 34, end with chapter 14, and bury chapter one nearly 300 pages in, you'd have to agree that T.L. Hines' "Faces in the Fire" is an unusual novel. But the appeal of this wacky yet profoundly entertaining tale extends far beyond the non-linearity - this is a rollicking and mysterious little gem of fiction that will keep you guessing while keeping your sense of rhythm deliciously off kilter.

The stories of four dissimilar people cross paths - a long haul truck driver and sculptor with no memories beyond the past six months, a notorious spammer with terminal cancer, a tattoo artist/heroine addict, and a hit man with the world's most bizarre weapon - guided by unexplained visions of catfish and seemingly random numbers scribbled on a napkin. Confusing? You bet, but Hines is a master storyteller, and cleverly guides the unsuspecting reader through his series of devious traps before delivering a knockout climax that is beyond clever.

Like the brilliant film "Memento", "Faces in the Fire" is a twisted tale of noir that demands a second look - or read, in this case. A great choice for those last lazy days of summer beach reading.

This book has a great story with a supernatural theme. It is an intriguing, interwoven story of a truck driver sculptor amnesiac who hears voices from clothing of the dead, a tattoo artist with a heroin habit who abandoned her family, a woman dying from cancer, and an assassin who can kill by touching people.

Their lives cross each other's, and they are changed forever.

I can't go into more detail without giving away the whole plot, but I couldn't put it down!

Read it. If you like imaginative books you'll really like this one.

Magic numbers, mystical Chinese company, a substance called Black Tar, ghosts, people with special powers and tattoos that appear out of nowhere. Maybe a good book for teens but I found the whole thing not well resolved - like, how did her cancer disappear and hair grow back overnight? Because she broke the old pattern of her life, took a chance, and NOT because of the magic potion? Her hair grew back overnight because she changed her ways. Hmmm. And the potion had what to do with it? Way too much goofy, not well explained stuff going on for me to care about anything. Also, I didn't like anybody. None of the characters became real people and without anybody to care about I have a tendency not to care about the story they're involved in. The storyline is pretty complex so I'll give him some stars for writing it. It just doesn't make much sense in the end. The internal logic does not cover and solve the problems in this dark and convoluted story. Somehow I got to the end but I wasn't driven to get there.

I tried and tried to get into this book after I requested a copy. Just couldn't. I found the chapter sequencing odd and disconcerting. Faces In The Fire begins with chapter 34 and ends with 14 and 1 is in the middle??? I'm not familiar with "noir bizarre," and I guess it's not for me.

I was so excited to try this because I love supernatural, mysterious mysteries, but this one could not catch or keep my attention. The story and character development promised was not there for me. Took me months to plow through enough to come up with an assessment, threatening my participating in the Vine program. Writing books is hard work, getting them published even harder. Consequently, even if I don't enjoy a book, I try to find something in my reviews that might signal its interest for another reader. Tough here: All I can say is if you like uniquely odd sequencing in a noir treatment, you might enjoy it. Might.

Overall, the cover and publisher's comments were intriguing, but the prose did not engage me and the odd sequencing of the book was a deal-breaker.

Truck Driver Kurt Marlowe woke up one day without a memory, an admittance letter to a truck driving school and lots of cash in a money belt. Without nothing more to go on than instinct, he became a truck driver. He became an artist too, a sculpter. He haunts estate sales and the things of the dead speak to him. When the do, he buys them. The dead are seeking help, closer. Kurt doesn't give it.

Corrine is a bottom feeding spam artist with cancer. One day, on impulse, she gets a tattoo and it changes her life.

Grace is a tattoo artist. She's also a junkie who has run away from a husband and two children, chasing the dragon. One day she orders an ink called black tar. It miraculously arrives the next day and it changes her life.

Stan is a killer who goes by the name of Bleach. The man can kill with a skin on skin touch, so he wears gloves. One day his mother gives him a slip of paper with a number on it which he passes on to a tattoo artist, who passes it on to a spam artist who passes it on to a truck driver who has more in common with the killer than anyone would think possible.

And there you have the characters in this novel that was just so could I wanted to cry. I am a huge, huge fan of Messers King, Koontz, Saul and Laymon. T.L. Hines is every bit as good at giving you the chilly willies, at keeping you on the edge of your seat, of making you afraid as you read along. Okay, maybe not as afraid as Stephen King or Richard Laymon, but you're spine will be a-tingling in this story that is a spine tingling joy to read.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

This is a tough book to review. Part of me really loved the story and another part of me was uncomfortable with it's premise. As a story I found it intriguing and very cleaver. Hines writing was good as usual. Linking four separate stories together was well done and kept me interesting (and thinking) throughout. The characters were three dimensional and real, the first is a sculpture and part-time truck driver who hears the cries of the dead, the second is a email spammer who is dieing of cancer, the third is a tattoo artist who has run away from her family and is hooked on heroin and the last is a hit-man with a special "gift". The book starts with chapter 35 and jumps around, entwining the chapters through each characters story. I'm mixed on whether I liked that approach or not. It seemed to have worked but it also forced me to pay attention tho the chapter order and where things happen and when.

After reading the book I spent two hours (literally) telling my wife about what I had read. Not an easy think to do with this kind of story. Normally I don't do this but I found myself very confused about what I had just read. Not that the story itself was confusing but the reasons and power behind it were not clear so if figured by talking it through I might find something I missed. Unfortunately the talk didn't help much. Without giving anything away, this is supposed to be a story about redemption but my problem lies in who was doping the redeeming? A generic form of god was mentioned once and that was it. To me the redeemer in the story was superstitious and even demonic. How else would one take something that is obviously evil and have good things (most of the time) come from it. To me it was not a story about God using evil for His good and if the author meant it as such I think he missed the boat. If this book was listed in a secular category I'd say Hines has a winner (from a worldly standpoint) but as a Christian novel I say it falls terribly short.

In conclusion the book is very interesting and worth reading if you have someone else who read it to discuss it with when you're through. If you're alone on this I'd find something else to read. And if you're a person who is discerning about their Christian fiction then I suggest skipping this book entirely.

1 Star = Pathetic
2 Stars = Fair
3 Stars = Good
4 Stars = Excellent
5 Stars = Life changing

This book started off a little strangely. I was thrown a little by the chapters that ran out of sequence, but once I got the hang of it and was invested in the well detailed, flawed, but ultimately likeable characters, I was hooked.

This book details the struggles of a few characters who don't know each other, but are threads woven together by the barest thread. There is a touch of the supernatural and enough mystery to keep you wondering what will happen next. To say more would be to give too much away. Let's just say, when I closed the last page I said "Wow" outloud.

This is a fantastic book. I highly recommend it. It will give you goosebumps too.

Review by Jill Williamson

Kurt is a sculptor with no memory of his past. He starts digging and discovers that he's miraculously healed from major body trauma. Doctors are baffled. And the private eye is spooked and tells him he should stop digging.

There are four main characters, and each story comes into contact with another. Each person experiences a supernatural phenomenon, whether it's hearing or seeing ghosts, creating tattoos with prophetic messages, or killing with the touch of a finger. These four are all connected, but will their lives end in disaster or redemption?

Wow. What a clever and bizarre story. It reminds me a bit of that movie Memento. In fact, someone should make this into a movie. It's got Oscar winner written all over it. It's a story that hooks you with a mystery, then tosses twists and turns so fast you almost can't catch them. Your brain is spinning to guess what might happen, how it all might tie together, and BAM! I totally didn't see that end coming. A very awesome adventure. My mind is still spinning. Nicely done, Mr. Hines.

Somewhere underneath the lives of the ordinary are the "bottom feeders," those who blend in with everyone else but have something to hide or to run from. FACES IN THE FIRE enters the realm of the noir, telling a story of lost souls who have become trapped by their choices and whose experiences seem to be linked by one bizarre number.

FACES IN THE FIRE is written in four stanzas, telling the stories of four different people, beginning at chapter 34. Stanza one is devoted to Kurt, an artist and truck driver by occupation. Kurt's sculptures are curious works of art: simple objects such as a tree or a fish but with a haunted face somehow perceptible in each and every one. Kurt is preoccupied by his own amnesia as well as a mystical ability that he possesses but can't explain. A recent fire is the only thing he remembers of his life, and he hears things --- unusual things. Kurt frequents estate sales in search of some distinctive item of clothing to add to his collection. These items of the deceased call out to him in some way, perhaps retaining an essence or last wish of their owner. At a time when Kurt is alone, he can hear voices emanating from a shirt or a pair of shoes, moaning a cry for help or a lingering lament.

Stanza two is for Corrine, a self-proclaimed bottom feeder of society. Corrine is an email spammer who seemingly exists solely to complicate the lives of average people. She is quite skilled on the computer and spends her free time at the hospital. She has a rare form of cancer that is highly curable in many cases but in hers has proven refractory to treatment. It seems that Corrine has always led a difficult life compared to most, initially supporting herself by selling magazines door-to-door and then moving on to an illustrious criminal career on the Net. The fact that she has sunk so far doesn't surprise her, but cancer has changed Corrine's outlook, giving her some impulse to really live and take chances. She has even decided to go ahead and get a tattoo.

Stanza three is for Grace, a tattoo artist with a gift. Grace is not her real name --- she left her old identity as wife and mother long ago. Heroin took away her name and her family, and shooting up was something she called "chasing the dragon." Now she runs Graceland, her own little bit of space where she makes the miraculous happen. Needles have become the great irony of her life as Grace now works with needles to create art. And she's the kind of artist who can make a tattoo into a mystical creation that changes lives.

The fourth stanza is for Stan, a killer with some supernatural ability to make things happen to people. Stan is quite a mystery. His story begins in his childhood when a family tragedy rocked his life to pieces. I enjoyed Stan's story most of all, and by the fourth stanza, the meaning of the book really takes shape. Interestingly, the use of stanzas is traditionally a style significant in poetry, and stanzas considered together often determine the clarity of the poem. So it's an intriguing way to write a noir story as the clarity of this story also comes only after reading the last stanza.

In FACES IN THE FIRE, Kurt, Corrine, Grace and Stan are all affected by a single number they encounter, which changes the turn of events. That number is a long one, 1595544534, and inexplicably it has the power to change lives. So there is a sort of lore about the number as well as some implied significance of certain objects in the story such as a catfish, a bottle of tattoo ink and a company name. The idea of this kind of interconnectedness is an interesting one, and I had to laugh when I discovered that very number to be the same as the book's ISBN-10 (the International Standard Book Number that identifies it). I also found it interesting that the term "faces in the fire" has both a figurative and literal meaning to the story, with fire being something that all the characters encounter at some point. Clearly, author T. L. Hines has a great sense of humor as well as a real talent for interconnected stories and ideas.

Whether or not readers take the supernatural happenings literally or figuratively as a part of the noir style, FACES IN THE FIRE is one tale of redemption that is worth the experience.

--- Reviewed by Melanie Smith

Somewhere underneath the lives of the ordinary are the "bottom feeders," those who blend in with everyone else but have something to hide or to run from. FACES IN THE FIRE enters the realm of the noir, telling a story of lost souls who have become trapped by their choices and whose experiences seem to be linked by one bizarre number.

FACES IN THE FIRE is written in four stanzas, telling the stories of four different people, beginning at chapter 34. Stanza one is devoted to Kurt, an artist and truck driver by occupation. Kurt's sculptures are curious works of art: simple objects such as a tree or a fish but with a haunted face somehow perceptible in each and every one. Kurt is preoccupied by his own amnesia as well as a mystical ability that he possesses but can't explain. A recent fire is the only thing he remembers of his life, and he hears things --- unusual things. Kurt frequents estate sales in search of some distinctive item of clothing to add to his collection. These items of the deceased call out to him in some way, perhaps retaining an essence or last wish of their owner. At a time when Kurt is alone, he can hear voices emanating from a shirt or a pair of shoes, moaning a cry for help or a lingering lament.

Stanza two is for Corrine, a self-proclaimed bottom feeder of society. Corrine is an email spammer who seemingly exists solely to complicate the lives of average people. She is quite skilled on the computer and spends her free time at the hospital. She has a rare form of cancer that is highly curable in many cases but in hers has proven refractory to treatment. It seems that Corrine has always led a difficult life compared to most, initially supporting herself by selling magazines door-to-door and then moving on to an illustrious criminal career on the Net. The fact that she has sunk so far doesn't surprise her, but cancer has changed Corrine's outlook, giving her some impulse to really live and take chances. She has even decided to go ahead and get a tattoo.

Stanza three is for Grace, a tattoo artist with a gift. Grace is not her real name --- she left her old identity as wife and mother long ago. Heroin took away her name and her family, and shooting up was something she called "chasing the dragon." Now she runs Graceland, her own little bit of space where she makes the miraculous happen. Needles have become the great irony of her life as Grace now works with needles to create art. And she's the kind of artist who can make a tattoo into a mystical creation that changes lives.

The fourth stanza is for Stan, a killer with some supernatural ability to make things happen to people. Stan is quite a mystery. His story begins in his childhood when a family tragedy rocked his life to pieces. I enjoyed Stan's story most of all, and by the fourth stanza, the meaning of the book really takes shape. Interestingly, the use of stanzas is traditionally a style significant in poetry, and stanzas considered together often determine the clarity of the poem. So it's an intriguing way to write a noir story as the clarity of this story also comes only after reading the last stanza.

In FACES IN THE FIRE, Kurt, Corrine, Grace and Stan are all affected by a single number they encounter, which changes the turn of events. That number is a long one, 1595544534, and inexplicably it has the power to change lives. So there is a sort of lore about the number as well as some implied significance of certain objects in the story such as a catfish, a bottle of tattoo ink and a company name. The idea of this kind of interconnectedness is an interesting one, and I had to laugh when I discovered that very number to be the same as the book's ISBN-10 (the International Standard Book Number that identifies it). I also found it interesting that the term "faces in the fire" has both a figurative and literal meaning to the story, with fire being something that all the characters encounter at some point. Clearly, author T. L. Hines has a great sense of humor as well as a real talent for interconnected stories and ideas.

Whether or not readers take the supernatural happenings literally or figuratively as a part of the noir style, FACES IN THE FIRE is one tale of redemption that is worth the experience.

--- Reviewed by Melanie Smith