The Face of Deception - Iris Johansen - 4 stars

I chose this book for my Month of Mystery because it is another book of a very long series in which I have been collection the books, but not reading them. So I thought it about time to pick up the first book and get started on knocking some of these out.
Synopsis
An unidentified skull...

A trail of terrifying secrets...

And a woman whose talented hands could reveal the shocking truth...

As a forensic sculptor, Eve Duncan helps identify the dead from their skulls. Her own daughter murdered and her body never found, the job is Eve's way of coming to terms with her personal nightmare. But more terror lies ahead when she accepts work from billionaire John Logan.

Beneath her gifted hands a face emerges from the skull he has given her to reconstruct—a face no one was ever meant to see. Now Eve is trapped in a frightening web of murder and deceit. Powerful enemies are determined to cover up the truth, and they will make certain that truth goes to the grave...even if Eve gets buried with it.

I knew I would enjoy the plot of this story from the synopsis. I think the story really flowed well and grabbed my attention from the start. It had such great pacing. The story, in parts, were pretty brutal, and I liked that too. I like when an author can wrote and not worry about who they may offend, after all a person can decide to not read the book. There was plenty of action going on this book and it had a nice creepy air to it great thrills and chills. I enjoyed all of the different elements that were in this book. The author writes with great imagery and that is always a plus.

The characters were all written pretty well, there are a lot of good guys and bad guys and readers will find themselves trying to figure out who they like and don't like, I know I did. You get to learn a lot about Eve Duncan in this first book. I do like her a lot, she is a very strong female protagonist, but I find that she is a bit contolling, she always has to be at the reigns, and also she has a bit of an unrealistic outlook on things at times. Other than that, I really do enjoy her as a character and I look forward to how she grows throughout the series.

I can recommend this book really to anyone who likes thrillers, cause this is a nice big thrill ride. I look forward to the rest of the books in this series and I am keeping my fingers crossed that I continue to like them. I think Iris Johansen is a very gifted writer.