Without a Face, by Lonnie Busch | Book Review

We’ve had the pleasure of reviewing Lonnie Busch’s books before here on the site, recently Assimilation, so when Without a Face landed on our radar we were already familiar with what this author is capable of. For those new to him, Busch is an American author who writes horror-tinged fantasy and sci-fi, and each of his books feels like a world of their own. Without a Face is his latest, published in March 2026, and it might just be his most ambitious work yet. Set in sixties America (or so it seems), it’s a genre-blending thriller that starts as one thing and slowly, confidently transforms into something else entirely.

The novel opens with Kurt and Alice, a married couple in their fifties living a quiet rural life in a town. Their lives are simple, but there’s a sadness hovering gently over their domestic routine; five years prior they lost their only son, Reed, in a tragic accident. When someone starts talking about people mysteriously disappearing from nearby towns, Kurt dismisses it as her usual gossipy nonsense. Then one night, a strange man in a suit and fedora shows up at their home, and everything changes. After a terrifying car crash, Kurt discovers their abductor is not quite human, and the couple find themselves alone in an unfamiliar landscape with no idea how to get home.

This book is a genuinely intriguing mystery, and it sucked me in almost immediately. What Busch does particularly well is plant little details and clues early on that only reveal their significance much later. It rewards attentive readers, the kind who notice small things and file them away. In terms of tone and atmosphere, it gave me heavy Stephen King vibes throughout, that specific blend of creeping horror and unsettling mystery where you can feel something is deeply wrong long before you can articulate what it is.

The strongest element of this book, in my opinion, is the pacing. Busch gives you exactly one chapter of Kurt and Alice in their normal lives before the kidnapping happens and everything is thrown into chaos. From that point on, it never really lets up. Every chapter moves the story forward, and crucially, every chapter ends on something that makes it very hard to put the book down. The chapter length also feels well-judged, substantial enough to develop atmosphere and character, but never bloated. This is a book that respects your time while also making you lose track of it.

Kurt and Alice are likeable and dependable protagonists. The story is told primarily through Kurt’s perspective, and he functions as a grounded, thoughtful presence through increasingly extraordinary events. If there’s a mild criticism it’s that they can occasionally feel like a slight blank slate, but that’s also arguably part of what makes them easy to inhabit as a reader. The grief the couple carry over the loss of their son Reed adds another element to the book, which leads to some moving moments.

The book may start seeming like a fairly standard mystery-adventure novel, but as it progresses it ventures into territory I genuinely didn’t predict, involving robots, artificial intelligence, and ideas about civilisation, history, and who gets to shape the future (all giving minimal spoilers). For readers who want a straightforward adventure story, this might not be quite what they’re looking for. But for fans of thriller and speculative fiction, it’s compelling stuff. The whole thing gave me major X-Files energy, that feeling of a conspiracy slowly coming into focus without you ever being sure how deep it goes. 

It also reminded me strongly of mystery thriller films like The Box and The Game, where a mysterious conspiracy is affecting ordinary people. By the final act, as Kurt reflects, “It started so innocuously; Kurt awakened by a noise, a car engine rumbling, a strange man in the driveway smoking a cigarette” you’ll likely feel, as I did, that you started reading a thriller and finished reading a sci-fi novel. 

For a book that ultimately deals with some fairly far-out concepts, Without a Face does a commendable job of keeping things accessible. The ideas are grounded in our characters and moral questions that anyone can engage with, and Busch never lets the concepts overwhelm the story. 

One thing Busch handles very well as the novel develops is the balance between mystery and revelation. He gives you enough answers to keep you satisfied while consistently generating new questions to keep you hooked. It never feels like the author is withholding information arbitrarily or stringing you along. The drip-feed of understanding feels earned and deliberate, and at 262 pages, it’s a book you could easily get through in a single day or even evening.

The book is beautifully formatted and edited, with little pictures of the car the characters presumably are driving starting each chapter. As to the downsides, I will say the ending feels a bit rushed, and also sometimes it is difficult to wrap your head around the plot as it starts getting really mind-bending. I thought the story had to be a dream at several points. Furthermore, the book has some disturbing content that will not be for everyone:

The man’s body was smashed against the steering wheel, his chest crushed, his arms bent unnaturally. Kurt dropped the head to the floor and gave it a kick, trying to force it under the man’s legs on the driver side. The head rolled back, the frozen eyes staring up at Kurt.

All in all, Without a Face is a confident, genre-blurring novel from a writer who clearly knows what he’s doing. Within two chapters, it launches you into a breathless thriller, and then gradually reveals itself to be asking much bigger questions than it initially let on. It’s the kind of book that you will have to read twice to understand everything, and benefits from a reader who’s willing to trust the journey even when the destination isn’t clear. 

Final verdict: For fans of Kazuo Ishiguro, Ted Chiang or Stephen King, Without a Face’s blend of horror and mysterious plot is well worth your time. If you enjoy a thriller that isn’t afraid to evolve into something stranger and more philosophical as it goes, this one is absolutely for you. 

You can get your copy of Without a Face or read for free on Kindle Unlimited here!