A review by jmatkinson1
A Mask of Shadows by Oscar de Muriel
3.0
1889 and Henry Irving has brought his production of Macbeth to Edinburgh. Ticket sales are not going well but when leading actress Ellen Terry finds a blood-soaked parcel in her dressing room and a banshee's howl is heard across the town followed by a prophecy written in blood, the theatre is suddenly inundated. Detectives Frey and McGray investigate the supernatural and corporal goings-on, trying to find out whether or not there is a threat to the production. however between madness, scandal and personal problems for both, it is difficult to separate crime from theatrical embellishment.
Apparently this is the third novel in a series but this is the first that I have read. The basic premise of the book is interesting. Sir Henry Irving and Dame Ellen Terry were long-term collaborators and former lovers, each carried plenty of scandal with them, the theatre manager at the time was Bram (Dracula) Stoker. By weaving these historical characters into a fictional plot, Muriel is intriguing the reader. The setting in Victorian Edinburgh is interesting and very atmospheric, the plot is complicated and draws many threads together. That, however, is where my enjoyment started to wane. the plot is exceptionally complex and reliant on the reader having more knowledge of the back-story of the characters than was supplied in this instalment. The actual perpetrator and the bones of the plot seemed to come rather out of left-field in the final stages, taking quite a detour from what had been set up originally. This wasn't a bad book by any means.
Apparently this is the third novel in a series but this is the first that I have read. The basic premise of the book is interesting. Sir Henry Irving and Dame Ellen Terry were long-term collaborators and former lovers, each carried plenty of scandal with them, the theatre manager at the time was Bram (Dracula) Stoker. By weaving these historical characters into a fictional plot, Muriel is intriguing the reader. The setting in Victorian Edinburgh is interesting and very atmospheric, the plot is complicated and draws many threads together. That, however, is where my enjoyment started to wane. the plot is exceptionally complex and reliant on the reader having more knowledge of the back-story of the characters than was supplied in this instalment. The actual perpetrator and the bones of the plot seemed to come rather out of left-field in the final stages, taking quite a detour from what had been set up originally. This wasn't a bad book by any means.