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The Smiling Man
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Lewys Taylor
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By:
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Joseph Knox
About this listen
From the acclaimed author of Sirens, damaged Detective Aidan Waits returns in a mind-bending new thriller that will have everyone asking, “Who is the Smiling Man?”
Aidan Waits is back on the night shift, the Manchester PD dumping ground for those too screwed up for more glamorous work. But the monotony of petty crimes and lonesome nights is shattered when he and his partner are called to investigate a break-in at The Palace, an immense, empty hotel in the center of the city.
There, they find the body of a man. He is dead. The tags have been cut from his clothes, his teeth have been filed down, and even his fingertips have been replaced...and he is smiling.
But as Waits begins to unravel the mystery of the smiling man, he becomes a target. Someone wants very badly to make this case disappear, and as their threats escalate, Aidan realizes the answers may lie not only with the wealthy families and organized criminals connected to the Palace, but with a far greater evil from his own past.
To discover the smiling man’s identity, he must finally confront his own.
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Critic reviews
“Vivid, visceral.... This ambitious book will appeal to those who like particularly grim story lines and deeply flawed protagonists.” (Publisher's Weekly)
"Knox takes his place alongside such writers as Val McDermid, David Peace, and Sophie Hannah in making Manchester a destination for crime fiction.” (Kirkus)
"Gritty as hell. I loved it! A great urban cop thriller" (Ian Rankin, New York Times best-selling author of the Inspector Rebus novels)
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Reader was very distracting
- By Merry Unbirthday on 10-16-17
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Nightfall
- Nightingale, Book 1
- By: Stephen Leather
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Uttered by the abusive father of a nine-year-old girl, that phrase ended Jack’s career as a police negotiator and has been haunting him ever since. Now that he is a struggling private detective, those words return with a vengeance when he inherits a mansion - and some terrifying information. Apparently Jack’s soul was sold at birth, and a devil will come to claim it on his thirty-third birthday just weeks away. It’s a hard pill to swallow, given that Jack doesn’t believe in hell (heaven, either).
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I Quite Liked the Story and Narration
- By Sires on 06-18-12
By: Stephen Leather
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Blue Monday
- Frieda Klein, Book 1
- By: Nicci French
- Narrated by: Beth Chalmers
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Frieda Klein is a solitary, incisive psychotherapist who spends her sleepless nights walking along the ancient rivers that have been forced underground in modern London. She believes that the world is a messy, uncontrollable place. The abduction of five-year-old Matthew Farraday provokes a national outcry and a desperate police hunt. And when his face is splashed over the newspapers, Frieda cannot ignore the coincidence: one of her patients has been having dreams in which he has a hunger for just such a child.
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Engrossing thriller - an easy "read"
- By Hilary on 08-15-13
By: Nicci French
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Frantic
- By: Katherine Howell
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In one terrible moment, paramedic Sophie Phillips' life is ripped apart - her police officer husband is shot on their doorstep and their ten-month-old son is abducted from his bed. Suspicion surrounds her possibly corrupt husband, but Sophie believes the attack is much more personal. Sophie enlists her husband's partner in the hunt for her son, but will the history they share prove harmful to Sophie's ability to complete her mission?
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Nice surprise
- By momgiraffe on 10-02-16
By: Katherine Howell
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Perfect Remains
- DI Callanach, Book 1
- By: Helen Fields
- Narrated by: Robin Laing
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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On a remote Highland mountain, the body of Elaine Buxton is burning. All that will be left to identify the respected lawyer are her teeth and a fragment of clothing. In the concealed back room of a house in Edinburgh, the real Elaine Buxton screams into the darkness…. Detective Inspector Luc Callanach has barely set foot in his new office when Elaine’s missing persons case is escalated to a murder investigation. Having left behind a promising career at Interpol, he’s eager to prove himself to his new team.
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A great disappointment
- By Amazon Customer on 12-20-19
By: Helen Fields
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Dead Before Dying
- By: Deon Meyer
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Three men who have nothing in common are found murdered in Cape Town, and the string of vicious killings pushes the city toward panic. Captain Mat Joubert is left scrambling for answers in a case that might be his last chance to prove that his life's slow spiral will not pull him under.
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South African mystery, very good.
- By Kathleen on 09-29-12
By: Deon Meyer
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Gone for Good
- A Novel
- By: Harlan Coben
- Narrated by: Jonathan Marosz
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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As a boy, Will Klein had a hero: his older brother, Ken. Then, on a warm suburban night in the Kleins’ affluent New Jersey neighborhood, a young woman—a girl Will had once loved—was found brutally murdered in her family’s basement. The prime suspect: Ken Klein. With the evidence against him overwhelming, Ken simply vanished. And when his shattered family never heard from Ken again, they were sure he was gone for good.
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Excellent twists and turns
- By Ed on 10-08-07
By: Harlan Coben
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Red Ribbons
- Dr. Kate Pearson, Book 1
- By: Louise Phillips
- Narrated by: Caroline Morahan
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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A missing schoolgirl is found buried in the Dublin Mountains, hands clasped together in prayer, two red ribbons in her hair. Twenty-four hours later, a second schoolgirl is found in a shallow grave - her body identically arranged. The hunt for the killer is on. The police call in criminal psychologist Kate Pearson to get inside the mind of the murderer before he strikes again. But the more Kate discovers about the killings, the more it all feels terrifyingly familiar.
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A true psychological thriller
- By BARBARA WAGONER on 12-24-16
By: Louise Phillips
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Reviver
- A Novel
- By: Seth Patrick
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Jonah Miller is a Reviver, able to temporarily revive the dead so they can say goodbye to their loved ones - or tell the police who killed them. Jonah works in a department of forensics created specifically for Revivers, and he’s the best in the business. For every high-profile corpse pushing daisies, it’s Jonah’s job to find justice for them. But while reviving the victim of a brutal murder, he encounters a terrifying presence. Something is on the other side watching. Waiting.
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Original premise, exciting story
- By Dr Dionne P Joseph on 02-04-14
By: Seth Patrick
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Left for Dead
- A Maeve Kerrigan Novella
- By: Jane Casey
- Narrated by: Sarah Coomes
- Length: 2 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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A violent rapist is attacking women, leaving them for dead on south London streets. When young policewoman Maeve Kerrigan responds to a domestic disturbance, she's horrified to stumble across the latest victim. But as a new recruit - and a female to boot - she'll have to face down not only her own nerves but rampant sexism from her colleagues if she wants to be taken seriously enough to even assist on the case.
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Waste of time & $
- By Mary Ann on 12-11-16
By: Jane Casey
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The Lost Ones
- A Novel
- By: Sheena Kamal
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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It begins with a phone call that Nora Watts has dreaded for 15 years - since the day she gave her newborn daughter up for adoption. Bonnie has vanished. The police consider her a chronic runaway and aren't looking, leaving her desperate adoptive parents to reach out to her birth mother as a last hope. A biracial product of the foster system, transient, homeless, scarred by a past filled with pain and violence, Nora knows intimately what happens to vulnerable girls on the streets.
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Would make a great movie!
- By Shay on 08-27-17
By: Sheena Kamal
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Blood Atonement
- By: Dan Waddell
- Narrated by: Colin Mace
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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A body is discovered with her throat cut and her daughter believed missing. DCI Foster quickly sees parallels with the disappearance of a teenager three years earlier. With hopes fading, he calls on genealogist Nigel Barnes to piece together the links between the families of the two girls. The trail leads back to 1890, and a young couple fleeing a terrible crime in their past....
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Superb
- By Madeleine on 04-13-10
By: Dan Waddell
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Divorcing Jack
- A Novel
- By: Colin Bateman
- Narrated by: Glen Murrant
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Dan Starkey is a journalist in Belfast, who shares with his wife, Patricia, an appetite for drinking and dancing. Dan meets Margaret, and things begin to get out of hand - terrifyingly, she is murdered. Before long, Dan is a target himself, racing as fast as he can against time to crack the mystery.
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This Belfast Gal was unimpressed
- By Barbarama on 09-30-23
By: Colin Bateman
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Still Midnight
- By: Denise Mina
- Narrated by: Jane MacFarlane
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Alex Morrow is not new to the police force - or to crime - but there is nothing familiar about the call she has just received. On a still night in a quiet suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, three armed men have slipped into a house, demanding a man who is not, and has never been, inside the front door. In the confusion that ensues, one family member is shot and another kidnapped, the assailants demanding an impossible ransom. Is this the amateur crime gone horribly wrong that it seems, or something much more unexpected?
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The ending, or lack thereof, left me disappointed
- By cristina on 08-28-13
By: Denise Mina
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Babylon Berlin
- Gereon Rath, Book 1
- By: Volker Kutscher
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Berlin, 1929. Detective Inspector Rath was a successful career officer in the Cologne Homicide Division before a shooting incident in which he inadvertently killed a man. He has been transferred to the vice squad in Berlin, a job he detests even though he finds a new friend in his boss, Chief Inspector Wolter. There is seething unrest in the city, and the Commissioner of Police has ordered the vice squad to ruthlessly enforce the ban on May Day demonstrations.
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It's no Bernie Gunther Mystery ...
- By Brian English on 01-28-18
By: Volker Kutscher
What listeners say about The Smiling Man
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 07-22-23
Well done
Yes this book is layered/complex and yes there are time jumps that seemingly come out of nowhere/make it a bit difficult to stay on top of everything but the book is excellent with a great ending. The narration is also excellent.
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- bookworman55
- 02-04-19
Complex mystery
Great “read” with wonderful voicing. I think it would be good to read his previous book first but one can still enjoy this one. Pay attention, though, not one you can skip over or listen with only one ear. I may even listen to it again. The main character is a disgraced cop in Britain who is on the night shift; no one seems to trust him or give him the time of day, including his night shift partner who takes advantage of him frequently. They come upon a dead man in a closed hotel who has died with a smiling grimace on his face and the case is to solve his identity and his mode of death.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 07-13-23
Convoluted story & confusing narration
Time jumps, too many characters, and confusing plot not helped by narrator’s lack of pauses between scenes and failure to distinguish character voices (especially Waits vs Sutcliff).
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1 person found this helpful