A Mask of Shadows
Frey & McGray Book 3
-
-
3.8 • 13 Ratings
-
-
- £2.99
-
- £2.99
Publisher Description
'A hugely entertaining Victorian mystery' New York Times
'I enjoyed this - properly creepy and Gothic' Ian Rankin
1889. The Scottish Play is coming home.
But before the darling couple of London theatre, Henry Irving & Ellen Terry, take their acclaimed Macbeth to the Edinburgh stage terror treads the boards.
A grisly message found smeared across the cobbles in blood, foretelling someone's demise.
As the bloody prophecies continue to appear Edinburgh's own beloved pair - Detective 'Nine-Nails' McGray & Inspector Ian Frey - enter the scene. Frey scoffs at this blatant publicity stunt, while McGray is convinced of supernatural affairs.
As they scrutinise the key players, they discover that Terry, Irving, and his peculiar, preoccupied assistant (one Bram Stoker) all have reasons to kill, or be killed...
But one thing is clear. By occult curse or human hand, death will take bow the night the curtain rises.
Praise for the Frey & McGray series:
'I enjoyed this - properly creepy and Gothic' Ian Rankin
'A hugely entertaining Victorian mystery' New York Times
'This is wonderful. A brilliant, moving, clever, lyrical book - I loved it. Oscar de Muriel is going to be a name to watch' Manda Scott
'Fun to read and a fast page-turner. Love and murder - they go together like strawberries and cream' Independent
'A brilliant mix of horror, history, and humour. Genuinely riveting with plenty of twists, this will keep you turning the pages. It's clever, occasionally frightening and superbly written ... Everything you need in a mystery thriller' Crime Review
'Fast-paced, well-researched and thoroughly spellbinding. The mismatched pair is as entertaining as Holmes and Watson at their best' Historical Novel Society
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in Edinburgh in 1889, de Muriel's effective third paranormal mystery (after 2017's A Fever of the Blood) puts Adolphus "Nine Nails" McGray and his partner, Insp. Ian Frey, the members of the Commission for the Elucidation of Unsolved Cases Presumably Related to the Odd and Ghostly, on the trail of a banshee that has been haunting a production of Macbeth starring theater legends Ellen Terry and Henry Irving. The banshee leaves behind some ominous messages written in blood, which hint that a murder will be committed on the play's opening night and which may be part of a scheme to terrorize Terry, who finds a bucket of bloody brains in her dressing room. Given that ticket sales have been lagging, the investigators consider the theory that the unsettling events may simply be a ploy to generate publicity. Their inquiry also ends up involving Terry and Irving's assistant, Dracula creator Bram Stoker. While Nicholas Meyer's The West End Horror did a better job of setting a murder case among real-life Victorian actors, de Muriel continues to make his offbeat series concept work. X-Files fans will be pleased.
