Cleek: The Man of the Forty Faces

There are two points on which a bit of suspension of disbelief are needed in reading the Cleek series. Firstly, as the blurb above says, Cleek is able to transform his appearance just by contorting his face - no wigs, makeup, masks or other contrivances required - apparently due to his mother playing with a rubber toy during her pregnancy. How exactly this also adjusts his height and build isn’t explained. Secondly, despite his sobriquet of ‘Hamilton Cleek’ being widely publicised during his criminal days, practically no-one seems to make the connection on the occasions when he uses the same name after he turns to the side of law and order.

Ignore those two implausibilities, and this book is actually quite a good collection of detective stories - consisting of individual cases, but told as a fairly continuous narrative, held together by the underlying thread of Cleek’s efforts to redeem himself and thus gain the affection of the woman with whom he has fallen in love. There is also another underlying thread concerning Cleek’s erstwhile accomplice, Margot, and her present accomplice, Merode, as Cleek occasionally finds himself foiling their plans. The author plays fair for the most part - the reader is given enough information to solve the case as well, although there are a couple in which essential facts are withheld. All in all, a good read, and I look forward to reading the other books in the series.