The Guise of Another is an unpleasant story that nevertheless keeps the reader’s attention. It is full of gratuitous violence and some sex. The main character is Alexander Rupert, a Minnesota detective who has done some bad choices in his job and is in a deteriorating marriage.  He is given a case of a man killed in a car accident who turns out to have a fake identity. Alexander looks into the case and finds layers upon layers of deception. He is good at his job, but he turns out to be up against a dangerous Serbian hit man who was hardened as a teenager when caught in war. Many of the characters in the story die violently, and most of them have dark secrets and ignoble motivations.  One starts to wonder how far the author will go, and whether he will kill off his hero.  It would have been a more memorable novel if he had been willing to go to that extreme. The characterization is not profound but Eskens does give plenty of detail of his character’s lives. For all its faults, the story is still distinctive. The unabridged audiobook read by Jonathan Yen is a satisfying performance.

© 2016 Christian Perring

Christian Perring, Professor of Philosophy, Dowling College, New York