In Blackmuir Wood, above the Victorian Spa village of Strathpeffer, sixteen miles west of Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland, four American students are found with their throats slit. Worse, each has been given a chilling new haircut. The FBI arrive, though too late to prevent another terrible murder. Meanwhile, into town strolls everybody's favourite accidental death-junkie barber, Barney Thomson, looking for a short back and sides and a different hair colour.

The Face Of Death is a 17,000-word Barney Thomson novella that takes place after the events of The Cutting Edge of Barney Thomson (the second Barney Thomson novel).