The Dancing Face

"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?“Any timeline of black British literary history worth its salt needs to include the ouevre of Phillips, and this novel exemplifies the best of his vigorous writing.” — Bernardine Evaristo

 "The Dancing Face has the page-turning quality of all good crime novels . . . The characters in The Dancing Face, as well as the relationships that link them, are extremely well fleshed-out . . . The ability to expose the many different aspects of political issues in a digestible way is one of the beauties of fiction, and Phillips makes use of it masterfully in The Dancing Face ― Bad Form

"This book is brutal, deep, cunning and unbearably beautiful"- The IndependentMike 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.