Book: Death Wears A Mask

Author: Ashley Weaver

Genre: Fiction/Mystery/Historical/Romance

Summary: Following the murderous events of the Brightwell Hotel, Amory Ames is looking forward to a tranquil period of reconnecting with her reformed playboy husband, Milo. She hopes a quiet stay at their London flat will help mend their relationship. However, Amory soon finds herself drawn into another investigation when an old friend of her mother's asks her to look into the disappearance of valuable jewelry snatched at a dinner party. Amory agrees to help lay a trap to catch the culprit at a lavish masked ball. But when one of the illustrious party guests is murdered, she is pulled back into the world of detection, caught up in both a mystery and a set of romantic entanglements where nothing is as it seems. -Minotaur Books, 2015.

It’s been a while since I last hung out with Jocelyn and Phillip. All is not well in their relationship. The so-perfect-for-each-other-it’s-disgusting couple has split due to a difference of opinion: Phillip wants to put a ring on it and Jocelyn is allergic to marriage. The Specter of Unresolved Feelings haunts the entire book. The mystery is a bit weak and I hated the ending, but it still gets an average rating because at least I cared enough about the characters to be really angry at the stupid, prideful boneheads.

One thing I hope never to see again: Dentinger attempting to write a black man’s dialogue in a tortured approximation of 1980’s AAVE. Thank goodness it was only in one scene.

One thing I hope to see more of: Government fart-finding missions.

They had eight pages of heavy exposition to get through, and they got through it as if they were on a government fart-finding mission.

The quote above is in reference to a pair of nervous actors in an off-Broadway play getting through their lines in their first scene of opening night. Bolding mine. I’d like the opinions of others on whether “fart-finding” is a typo or deliberate. XD

The insecurities of the main character are a bit annoying. I thought it was settled at the end of the last book that her husband is deeply and madly in love with her. Apparently I was wrong about her being aware of that. 

As president of one of Tennessee's largest companies, Randolph Clare is outraged when arsonists destroy one of his Memphis plants. But then his wife and children are savagely murdered. All thoughts of vengeance are drowned in his grief.

Desperate to see his loved ones again, if only to bid them farewell, he enlists the aid of an Indonesian physician who claims that he can help Randolph enter the world of the dead. But, the doctor warns, ravening demons wait for those who dare the voyage. Not only Randolph's life will be at stake, but the souls of his family.

 

Really enjoyed this, as one of the first book's i've read of Graham Masterton's I have to say I was impressed! The plot flowed and the location's!! wow! graham has a way with word's that makes you feel as if you're there in the location he's writing about. I went to Tennessee and Thailand! Really spooky read into the world of occult Buddhism.