Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #636391 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

From Amazon.com
If it's New Orleans and the novel's main characters have been dead for years but are still walking around terrorizing people, it must be an Anne Rice adventure. But it isn't--it's the first in a new series starring a fascinating heroine, Seattle parapsychologist Cree Black, whose own murky past and special gifts make her the perfect choice to investigate a haunted house in the Garden District and the family that's slowly being scared to death. Lila Beauforte has moved back into her ancestral home, now inhabited by ghosts who seem bent on driving her out. Cree, her senses more attuned to the presence of revenants than flesh-and-blood bad guys, shakes enough closets in Beauforte House to bring the skeletons out, solve mysteries of the past as well as the present, and fall in love with an equally appealing if more traditional investigator of the unconscious who may be able to help her free herself from her own emotional prison. She's a smart, vulnerable, and attractive character in an unearthly and unusual thriller that starts off a promising new series with a howl and presages a long run on the bestseller list. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly
Hecht (Skull Session; The Babel Effect; etc.) introduces empathic investigator ("ghost buster" to the layman) Cree Black in a haunted house tale set-where else?-in a storied New Orleans mansion. Cree, an investigator of paranormal phenomena with a slick Seattle office, is retained by the vaguely sleazy Ronald Beauforte, the last scion of a decaying New Orleans family. His sister, Lila, is losing her mind, and she insists it is because her family's ancestral mansion is haunted. Cree is summoned South to see if she can use her empathic talents to suss out the ghosts and prevent Lila's disintegration. Cree is still nursing years-old grief over the death of her husband, even talking with him in her mind; this accounts for her sensitive psychic antennae, and also explains why she's loath to acknowledge the unsubtle romantic attentions of her business partner, Edgar. Since Edgar is tied up with another case, Cree has to fly solo to bayou country, facing down the Machiavellian Beauforte family matriarch, local hoodoo practitioners, and even a menacing hired gun with the sobriquet "Loup Garou." Hecht explains aspects of modern-day ghost hunting and offers a Faustian red herring in the form of a handsome young psychiatrist. Yet while he paints a rich, compelling picture of the world of paranormal research, the plot holds few surprises, and the characters' psychology and motives tend to be overexplained. Hecht's previous thrillers have been impressively sophisticated, but this predictable-though atmospheric-effort may cause readers to think they, too, have supernatural powers: they know how the book will end well before they've finished it.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Cree (short for Lucretia) Black is a parapsychologist--what the skeptics disdainfully call a "ghostbuster." Since her husband's untimely death nine years ago, she has been able to use her empathic abilities to sense the presence of ghostly manifestations and to liberate them from the realm of the living. Cree's newest case involves the haunted Beauforte House, located in the Garden District of New Orleans. The Beaufortes are your typical southern Gothic family: Charmaine, the aristocratic but monstrous mother; debonairly dissipated son Ronald; Jack, the social-climbing son-in-law; and daughter Lila, who is the only one to have actually seen the ghost. The rest of the Beauforte clan believe Lila is mentally unbalanced and have agreed to hire Cree in an effort to humor her. But, soon after arriving at the house, Cree also sees the ghost and is physically attacked by it. The authentic, supernatural locale contributes the requisite spooky atmosphere--think Anne Rice at her least histrionic--and the eccentric characters are well drawn and believable. Michael Gannon
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

must read!
This is one of the greatest I ever read for a long while.
The writing style along with the beauitful setting,
this is more then a normal ghost story but with romance,
supense and humanlity. It's such a wonderful book
that you will cherish for a long time! It's a classic!
I am going to read the "land of Echoes" next.

Self Help for Ghosts....
Freud look out! City of Masks is the story of Cree Black, troubled parapsychologists who uses her empathic talent to commune with ghosts and banish them. Unfortunately, her talent is emotionally dangerous and risky, and when she is called by a wealthy client to investigate a haunted house in New Orleans, she is soon sucked into an almost soap-operatic level of drama, deceit and betrayal.

I listened to the unabridged audio version of City of Masks narrated by Anna Fields. I must say, that Anna Fields is not my favorite narrator. She has sort of a drowsy emotionless voice which /really/ grates on my nerves. She does female characters well. But the male characters sound drunk and crude. Not the best choice of narrators.

The story? At first I liked Cree Black. But I felt she had way too much baggage. Everyone has issues. The nurse, the doctor, her partner, the family. Enough already. I wanted to read about the ghosts and the paranormal stuff... Instead we have to hear about Cree's problems. Her whining, psychoanalysis hand wringing, guilt, psychobabble just got old. If anyone needs a psychiatrist, its Cree Black! The heroine was dysfunctional and unprofessional. Tiresome.

Also? It kind of icked me out that Cree was having a romance right in the middle of a case which should have required her full attention. Also, that the love interest was another shrink boyfriend who was constantly analyzing her, LIED to her, and then spends half the book thinking she's crazy. Not romantic. Not even close.

Finally, I got the impression that the author was trying too hard with the 'dynasty-style' southern family. Perhaps its different in the south, but I found the attitudes expressed by Lila and her mother and Ro-Ro antiquated and difficult to relate too.

I give City of Masks 3 stars. I didn't like Cree's lack of professionalism, or her relationship to the psychiatrist which seemed unhealthy and tedious.

read this before land of echoes
super interesting. a bit of new orleans mystery - a good read or listen if you like ghosts - paranormal stories. Cree and her associates are wonderful, Joyce and Edgar - and her new interest Paul!