Tuesday, 25 November 2025

Her Many Faces by Nicci Cloke

Dear friends. I'm on the blog tour today for an intriguing thriller which examines a woman accused of murder from five different perspectives.

In Her Many Faces, we hear the viewpoints of her barrister, a journalist covering the case, her childhood friend, her lover and her father. It makes for a gripping account where we can never be fully convinced of our own viewpoint on Katie Cole.

Publisher's Description

When four wealthy and influential men are poisoned at London’s most exclusive private club, a young waitress is charged with their murder after being caught running from the scene of the crime. As the trial grips the nation, five men begin to question how well they really knew her. She represents something different to each of them.

My Thoughts

It starts with Katie serving cocktails to four men in a luxurious club. They're boasting and getting red in the face as they consume more alcohol. Katie seems removed from the scene in front of her.

Decant and pour, serve and clear.
Wait.

And so it begins, a court case which grips the nation. To her father, Katie is Kit Kat, and he starts by reminiscing fondly about her as a child. Tarun, the barrister, is searching for gaps in the prosecution's case, but it's difficult when it looks as if Katherine, as he will call her in court, ran from the murder scene. Max, a reporter, is trying to track down people who knew "Killer Kate," including her brother. Gabriel, her friend since the age of 15, knows her as KC.

It's nearly a quarter into the book before we hear from her lover, to whom she is Wildcat.

Gradually we learn more and more about Katie, her complex relationships and what motivates her. At times she infuriates us, particularly as a troubled teenager. Then we learn something new and she has our sympathy.

This is a novel where nothing is at it seems, and just as we think we understand everything, the twist at the end is one we didn't see coming.

About the Author

Nicci Cloke, author of Her Many Faces, reviewed by Is This Mutton.

Nicci Cloke is the author of Someday Find Me, and the co-producer of literary salon, Speakeasy and online story series 1,001 Nights.

She used some of her own life experiences to inform the character of Katie Cole. Nicci ran off to America with a new boyfriend instead of finishing a law degree, and she reflected on her own relationship with her parents to write the character of the father in Her Many Faces.

Before becoming an author, Nicci worked in the Permissions team at a publisher and she has worked as a waitress in a cocktail bar, a nanny and an elf. Nicci Cloke lives in Cambridgeshire.

Thanks to Anne Cater from Random Things Tour, the publisher Harvill Secker, part of Vintage Penguin Random House UK, and the author for a digital copy of the book in return for an honest review.