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Masquerade: When telling the truth is a dangerous game
A week marooned among strangers seems to Anna to be the perfect opportunity to reinvent herself. Leaving behind the mess that her life has become to attend a Psychology summer school in Bath, she is hoping for some sense of perspective, perhaps even an escape. But Anna comes to realise that she is not the only one searching for answers. Among her fellow students are Carys, who is being stalked by her abusive ex-husband, Michael, grieving for the loss of his wife, and Jack, enigmatic and nonchalant and hiding troubles of his own.
As the hottest week of the summer draws on, unsettling events spring from the shadows of their pasts. Reliving old passions and discovering new ones, Anna becomes aware of sinister undercurrents. Amid disappearances and death and the threat of violence, she finds that no one is quite what they seem, and that someone is guarding a secret which will have terrible consequences for them all.
Catherine^^^^^Marshall
As the hottest week of the summer draws on, unsettling events spring from the shadows of their pasts. Reliving old passions and discovering new ones, Anna becomes aware of sinister undercurrents. Amid disappearances and death and the threat of violence, she finds that no one is quite what they seem, and that someone is guarding a secret which will have terrible consequences for them all.
Catherine^^^^^Marshall
270 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 13, 2011
1 person is currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Catherine Marshall
3 books1 followerCatherine Marshall was born in Birmingham and studied Literature and Theatre at North Cheshire College. She began writing at the age of eleven and sold her first short stories to Jackie magazine while she was still a student. As well as contributing short stories to a variety of magazines, she has written and published two romantic novels.
Catherine is the author of Masquerade and Excluded and her new novel, Still Water. She is married with two children and lives in Lancashire.
Catherine is the author of Masquerade and Excluded and her new novel, Still Water. She is married with two children and lives in Lancashire.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 8, 2015
Masquerade is a modern day suspense mystery. The book opens with a murder, but the reader is already plunged into the twisting plot by not being told who the narrator is. We are several paragraphs in before we find a character with a name. Anna Pasternak is on her way to Bath to attend a week of summer school at the University on a Psychology course.
There is a complex storyline which you need to keep on top of. It hops back and forth between present moment and past background and I kept dropping the thread of the plot scrambling to catch up with the sudden changes. There are four main characters whose background is peeled away in layers. Anna is a single Mum, Carys has escaped an abusive husband, Michael is grieving the loss of his wife and Jack balances on his own knife-edge of pain. They are drawn together on the course and agree to work together on a project.
The course offers the opportunity of anonymity, to re-invent themselves to escape for a week amongst strangers. An important part of their project is the process by which the brain makes certain assumptions from visual and oral messages and how we are trained to jump to stereotyped conclusions. One of the sub-characters is a deaf women, she opens the readers eyes when she talks about a character whose eyes and mouth say different things, her lack of hearing makes her notice different things to others.
The psychology course is very important to the storyline because the characters are embedded in it and the course lessons and findings draw the reader along in the plot. There are lots of twists, and just when you think you have it sorted the story twists again.
There were times when I really struggled to know who was talking and there were others when I felt I needed to dig the storyline out from under the depth of descriptive writing plus a few niggling editing issues. I also think the book cover is wrong for this book, the message from the cover characters is historical, I know they are wearing masks but when readers internet shop with their eyes from thumb-nail sized book covers they probably won't think modern suspense mystery.
Overall a complex mystery which will keep the reader on their toes.
There is a complex storyline which you need to keep on top of. It hops back and forth between present moment and past background and I kept dropping the thread of the plot scrambling to catch up with the sudden changes. There are four main characters whose background is peeled away in layers. Anna is a single Mum, Carys has escaped an abusive husband, Michael is grieving the loss of his wife and Jack balances on his own knife-edge of pain. They are drawn together on the course and agree to work together on a project.
The course offers the opportunity of anonymity, to re-invent themselves to escape for a week amongst strangers. An important part of their project is the process by which the brain makes certain assumptions from visual and oral messages and how we are trained to jump to stereotyped conclusions. One of the sub-characters is a deaf women, she opens the readers eyes when she talks about a character whose eyes and mouth say different things, her lack of hearing makes her notice different things to others.
The psychology course is very important to the storyline because the characters are embedded in it and the course lessons and findings draw the reader along in the plot. There are lots of twists, and just when you think you have it sorted the story twists again.
There were times when I really struggled to know who was talking and there were others when I felt I needed to dig the storyline out from under the depth of descriptive writing plus a few niggling editing issues. I also think the book cover is wrong for this book, the message from the cover characters is historical, I know they are wearing masks but when readers internet shop with their eyes from thumb-nail sized book covers they probably won't think modern suspense mystery.
Overall a complex mystery which will keep the reader on their toes.
May 2, 2015
Who wouldn’t like to spend time at a summer school where nobody knows you and you can reinvent yourself, assuming any identity you want for a few days? But what if everyone around you is doing the same, and not always for idle reasons? An Open University summer school in Bath brings together mature students Anna, Michael, Carys and Jack, seemingly total strangers, to study identity They all have pasts to put behind them but not all of them are willing to do so. The disparate strands are skilfully woven together into a fuse that finally sets off a dramatic and shocking explosion. I knew something was coming, but I didn’t guess what.
This is a psychological thriller, where personalities and motives are finely and sympathetically drawn and apparent truths disappear up a host of false trails. The descriptions of summer heat in Bath (it’s clearly Bath, though it’s not named), had me reaching for a cold drink. A very good read.
This is a psychological thriller, where personalities and motives are finely and sympathetically drawn and apparent truths disappear up a host of false trails. The descriptions of summer heat in Bath (it’s clearly Bath, though it’s not named), had me reaching for a cold drink. A very good read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews