Product Description

Alice's baby is two weeks old when she leaves the house without her for the first time. On her eager return, she finds the front door open, her husband asleep on their bed upstairs. She rushes into their baby's room and screams. 'This isn't our baby! Where's our baby?' Her increasingly hostile husband swears she must be either mad or lying, and the DNA test is going to take a week.



One week later, before the test has been taken, Alice and the baby have disappeared. Run away, abducted, murdered? The police who dismissed her baby swap story must find out, and as they do they find dark incidents in David's past - like the murder of his ex-wife...

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1724 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Literary Review
'High-quality stuff'

Review
‘Sophie Hannah is a real star.’ (P J Kavanagh in the Daily Telegraph )

‘Sophie Hannah’s comic fiction produces reams of entertaining moral sophistry. Her novels sparkle.’ (Independent )

'Hannah has a keen ear for her characters’ foibles, snobberies and hypocrisies, and the observation remains acute throughout.’ (Observer )

'This may well turn out to be the detective novel of the year . . . So develops a terrifying mystery of manipulation, counter-manipulation and, finally, astounding revelation - it's a haunting story told with bewitching skill'

(Scotsman )

'The author is a poet by trade and she brings a wealth of psychological and literary subtlety to bear in this impressive novel. Smart and disarmingly unnerving.'

(Daily Mail )

'Hannah adapts to crime fiction with arresting aplomb: her characters are vivid, the novel's challenging double narrative is handled with flair, and its denouement is ingenious'

(The Sunday Times )

'LITTLE FACE is that most fascinating and intelligent of modern crime novels: rather than a whodunit, it escalates from a how-and-whydunit to a point where the reader is unsure if a crime has been committed at all . . . Hannah never deviates from her intention: to deliver a gripping crime story of the first order, loaded with subtext and meaning.'

(Leeds Guide )

'Hannah's whodunit milks a classic formula with subversive results. This missing-baby tale chimes with very modern anxieties. Custody issues lie at the heart of the resolution, and the increasingly perverse relationship between Alice and David is grounded in recognisable reality that serves only to make our flesh crawl more.'

(Emma Hagestadt, Independent )

'I do not really want to discuss this thriller. I do not want to give away any of the quite brilliant twists to those who may not have read LITTLE FACE or have not yet finished it. So, you will just have to take my word, and that of those who mailed the Books group, that Sophie Hannah delivers as good a finale as any crime writer. I was extremely impressed.'

(Alyson Rudd, The Times )

'Intriguing. Hannah's depiction of releationships tested to the limit by domestic tragedy is impressive.'

(Simon Shaw, Mail on Sunday )

'A gripping psychological thriller'

(Independent on Sunday )

'It's chilling and completely gripping - I stayed up all night to finish it.'

(Emily Barr, bestselling author of Cuban Heels and Plan B )

Guardian
'A chilling thriller...I was left thinking about the book for days'

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Customer Reviews

Well written psychological thriller
It must be a nightmare to come home after leaving your baby for the first time, to find that the infant you return to is not the one you left. Even more so when you cannot convince those around you, who put your story down to post-natal depression. This is the starting point for this well-written psychological thriller. It is written in two voices, that of the mother, and of one of the detectives who is sent to investigate the mystery at "The Elms", (the home of Alice's mother-in-law, and devoted grandmother of 'little face'). This 'dual voice' actually works well and the pages turn swiftly. This is a gripping read.
The ultimate resolution is perhaps slightly predictable, although it is always easier to set up mysteries than to resolve them satisfactorily. However, the characters are sufficiently believable, and the steps towards reaching the conclusion are sufficiently intricate to make this an enjoyable, if slightly disturbing read. The scenes played out between Alice and her husband are particularly chilling. I will certainly look out for Sophie Hannah's next novel. I wonder, incidentally, if she will give the detectives in this novel a second outing, as there is certainly scope to develop their characters further!

The best, most gripping thriller I've read for years
I read a lot of crime and thrillers, and I have to say this one blew me away. The writing is as clear, beautiful and compelling as the plot is complex, and the ending, when the truth is revealed, literally made the hairs on my arms stand up, it was so exciting. I then thought back over everything I'd read and realised how expertly the end of the novel was woven into the very beginning, though of course I hadn't spotted it at the time. Though very different to Daphne Du Maurier's 'Rebecca', this book reminded me of 'Rebecca' and is certainly as good. I would say 'Little Face' is destined to become a classic of the spine-tingling thriller genre.

Great book but finished too quickly
The book switches between two peoples view points of the same events, described using alternate chapters. One story starts one week behind the other so for most of the book you have to keep adjusting your mind to think whether of not certain happenings, which you know will happen, have happened yet!!! As the book moves on the timing of the 2 narrators merges and the last few chapters are brought together.
I think that this is a really interesting way of telling the story, in that it challenges the attitude that you have to the main characters.
Alice's situation is very difficult to understand but is described very well.
The book was way beyond a "who done it" thriller and who did it in the end was almost irrelevant as the story very cleverly evolved.
The only disappointment I had was that I think the story ended too quickly. It was almost as though the author had set a page limit in her head and she suddenly realised she was getting close to it and so needed to stop. I wanted a lot more about Vivienne and David reactions but they seemed to fall away at the end. This didn't spoil the overall experience though and I will find more of this author's books and, I'm sure, enjoy them