The Dancing Face
Published on 12. August 2025
272 pages
978-1-68589-172-5 (ISBN)
Description
"This book is brutal, deep, cunning and unbearably beautiful"- The Independent
A blistering, original thriller that examines the powerful link between identity, sacrifice, and possession, as a Black university professor plans a burglary to "liberate" an African sculpture from a London museum . . .
University lecturer Gus knows that stealing the priceless Benin mask, the Dancing Face, from a museum at the heart of the British establishment will gain an avalanche of attention. Which is exactly what he wants.
But such a risky theft will also inevitably capture the attention of characters with more money, more power, and fewer morals.
Naively entangling his loved ones in his increasingly dangerous pursuit of righteous reparation, is Gus prepared for what it will cost him?
A blistering, original thriller that examines the powerful link between identity, sacrifice, and possession, as a Black university professor plans a burglary to "liberate" an African sculpture from a London museum . . .
University lecturer Gus knows that stealing the priceless Benin mask, the Dancing Face, from a museum at the heart of the British establishment will gain an avalanche of attention. Which is exactly what he wants.
But such a risky theft will also inevitably capture the attention of characters with more money, more power, and fewer morals.
Naively entangling his loved ones in his increasingly dangerous pursuit of righteous reparation, is Gus prepared for what it will cost him?
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Mike Phillips was born in Guyana, and grew up in London. He worked for the BBC as a journalist and broadcaster on television programs before becoming a lecturer in media studies at the University of Westminster. He has written many critically-acclaimed crime novels, including Blood Rights, which is being adapted for BBC television, and The Late Candidate, winner of the Crime Writers' Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction. He is also the author of an essay collection, London Crossings: A Biography of Black Britain. He lives in London.
