Book Review: The Smiling Man by Joseph Knox

Title: The Smiling Man

Author: Joseph Knox
Series: Aidan Waits Thriller #2
Published: 3/18/18
Publisher: Transworld Digital
Pages: 400

GoodReads Description: "From the bestselling author of Sirens, Detective Aidan Waits returns - on the hunt to find the identity of The Smiling Man.

'An arresting new talent' Metro

‘I usually experienced the presence of a dead body as an absence, but in this case, it felt like a black hole opening up in front of me’
Disconnected from his history and careless of his future, Detective Aidan Waits has resigned himself to the night shift. An endless cycle of meaningless emergency calls and lonely dead ends. Until he and his partner, Detective Inspector Peter ‘Sutty’ Sutcliffe, are summoned to The Palace, a vast disused hotel in the centre of a restless, simmering city. There they find the body of a man. He is dead. And he is smiling.
The tags have been removed from the man’s clothes. His teeth filed down and replaced. Even his fingertips are not his own. Only a patch sewn into the inside of his trousers gives any indication as to who he was, and to the desperate last act of his life…
But even as Waits puts together the pieces of this stranger’s life, someone is sifting through the shards of his own.
When the mysterious fires, anonymous phone calls and outright threats escalate, he realises that a ghost from his own past haunts his every move.
And to discover the smiling man’s identity, he must finally confront his own."

MY THOUGHTS: Loved it! I loved this book! I'm going to go back and read book 1 (Sirens) for sure! The concept of the very damaged addict detective reminded me of Harry Hole (one of my all-time favorites!), but the writing was different and completely different circumstances. It just makes for such an interesting character for someone to have such deep flaws! But at the heart is still a good person just so - trapped. Addiction is rough, friends. It ruins some of our best people. It's great to see a character come back from that. So 5 stars for characters! The mystery was well done, too. I liked that I couldn't figure it out. It was a great story! MY RATING: Entertainment Value: 5 Characters 5 Voice: 5 Plot: 5 Overall: 5 stars! Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!