When Ray Arthur, a retired detective, is killed mysteriously in a road accident, his daughter Zoe is shattered. Her need to understand his life, and the circumstances of his death, sends her home to the town in which she grew up. She tracks down Declan, a former police artist and a one-time friend of her father's. Through their fraught encounters, a terrible picture of guilt and betrayal emerges. With forensic skill, Phil Whitaker peels back the layers of distortion and family myth to expose the truth about Ray Arthur's friendship with Declan and their secret collaboration over a dreadful crime against a young girl. A dark portrayal of the sexual chemistry within families, The Face is a deeply grown-up novel that lives in the imagination long after the final page. Its compellingportrayals of public and private lives ask fundamental questions about guilt and innocence, flesh and blood, and whether we can ever truly know another person.