The Mask of Night (A Charles & Melanie Fraser Historical) [Kindle Edition]

Tracy Grant (Author)

Book Description

A glittering ball, a whisper of intrigue and a couple with secrets...

Regency London's most glamorous couple, Mélanie and Charles Fraser, have hidden their pasts from aristocratic society - and each other - to become the envy of the ton.

But, when attending a Twelfth night masquerade, a mysterious masked man is found stabbed to the heart; and all their misdeeds and secrets may be dragged into full, merciless light.

Mélanie's previous ties to the Empress Josephine - including a promise to her desperate daughter, Queen Hortense, and Charles's secret work for the British government - thrust them both into the search for the killer, taking them from Seven Dials to Mayfair, from viperous thieves' dens to candlelit ballrooms, where the glitter of diamonds can mask the gleam of the knife...

Product Details

• File Size: 668 KB
• Print Length: 399 pages
• Publisher: NYLA (March 23, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004TMLJNM
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,670 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars At long last! April 1, 2011

By Jeanne Pickering

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm so grateful that Tracy Grant decided to publish this sequel to Secrets of a Lady and Beneath a Silent Moon as an e-book. Excerpts have been up on her blog for ages and I've worn my screen thin reading and re-reading them. You can read this book as a stand-alone but, if you haven't already done so, reading the other two books first will make Mask even more enthralling.

Tracy's plots are intricate and intriguing - the kind that keep you reading late at night to find out what happened. Her characters have depth and complexity who struggle with their own conflicting values and desires. If you love Lord Peter Wimsey or Judith Ivory's heroes, you'll love Charles Fraser. And, if you're a historical novel reader, Tracy's research is impeccable but not heavy handed, from references to events like the Peterloo massacre to passing references to the smell of colza oil lamps.

Tracy has a fourth book in this series just released in print. Vienna Waltz under the name Teresa Grant. This book can especially be read as a standalone, as the names have been changed, but the characters are the same. Vienna Waltz is a prequel to Beneath a Silent Moon.
To clear up any possible confusion, the books' chronology is:
1. Vienna Waltz
2. Beneath a Silent Moon
3. Secrets of a Lady
4. The Mask of Night

But I recommend reading them in their publication order:
1. Secrets of a Lady
2. Beneath a Silent Moon
3. The Mask of Night
4. Vienna Waltz

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Read VIENNA WALTZ instead. This one is not so good. April 17, 2011

By Old Latin teacher TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

(2.5 stars rounded up to be nice.) As a Tracy Grant fan, I don't feel happy about writing this review. This is the fourth Charles and Melanie Fraser book that I have read and it is most definitely my least favorite. The plot has its usual mystery to be solved. There are spies of all ilks running around, members of the peerage having illicit sexual or romantic liaisons, mostly extramarital, huge numbers of possible suspects, plots and twists of plots, with historical characters thrown in the mix (but this time to no advantage).

In other words, it has all the trappings that I usually like in a Grant book, but this time it didn't work for me. I can enjoy a convoluted plot with a huge cast of characters, but the writing here was not polished, the story advanced almost exclusively through dialogue and seemed choppy, and the descriptive passages were mainly of some action/adventure within the story: running from bad guys, chasing bad guys, fighting with bad guys, captured by bad guys and escaping, cleaning up after the misadventures, etc. I felt like I was reading a very, very busy movie script.

Another thing that bothered me was the lack of growth in Melanie and Charles' relationship. They don't seem to me to be any closer emotionally in this book which takes place in the year 1820 than they were in VIENNA WALTZ, which takes place in 1814. They work together well solving mysteries but need to solve the mystery of their own relationship. I'm getting tired of this marriage of strangers who seem to be making little effort to get closer and to have a frank and open relationship. Some couples use sex to avoid real conversations. Charles and Melanie run around solving convoluted mysteries as their avoidance mechanism.... Supposedly, they love each other, but there is little demonstrative evidence of this. (And, no, I do not mean I want sex scenes in the books. I want their interaction to be less cool.)

Additionally, I must add that I don't believe I have encountered any really happy couples in any of the 4 Charles and Melanie novels. Well, it's one thing to be realistic about love, romance and relationships and it's another to be downright pessimistic. Come on, Ms Grant. What's up with that? Does everyone have to be unfaithful or emotionally distant?

One more peeve I have involves the Kindle formatting. It hugely needed editing. There are mistakes on almost every page. Words are left out, incorrect words, such as "dose", are used in place of the correct ones, in that case the word "close", etc. Well, it was only $2.99. You get what you pay for, I guess.

BTW, two very good Grant books, IMO, are her latest VIENNA WALTZ and her earlier SECRETS OF A LADY. They are definitely worth reading. If you have never read Tracy Grant before, this one should not be your first. Read more ›

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars FINALLY!!! March 26, 2011

By mys_reader

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was afraid this would NEVER be published! Ugh to the publishing industry for not taking chances. And ugh to the millions of fans who demand that all books set in Regency times have foot-stomping virgins and glowering spy-dukes who are rakes and gamblers.

I enjoy Grant's books; her view of the tawdry side of Regency England underneath the pretty surface is so much better than other authors' "noble aristocrats defeating Evil Napoleon and taking care of grateful peasants" theme.

I wish it was in paperback, but the price of the kindle book ($2.99) can't be beat!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Mask of Night July 9, 2012

By Zinnia

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I really enjoyed reading another adventure with Charles and Melanie. I cannot wait for another one. It is always interesting to see how Charles and Melanie sort through the pieces to find the answers in the end. The story kept my interest with the different twist and suprizes along the way about the many different characters. I plan to search for more of Tracey Grants books.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars loved it! November 5, 2011

By lizarda

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've recently discovered Tracy Grant through her book "Vienna Waltz", and honestly I'm relieved to discover that she's written more than one book! I find her historical writing to be fun, entertaining, and smart... an oasis in a desert filled with sub-par regency themed books.

This book will not disappoint in terms of premise - I couldn't put it down. But grammatically speaking there is a problem, which is why I've given the book 4 stars instead of 5. As another reviewer mentioned, incorrect words were placed in the text, or words were misspelled, punctuation had a tendency to be spotty, etc. Editing was also needed to clean up some of the more serious plot issues, such as timelines (the Frasers really squeeze all 24 hours out of the day), or the removal of clunky scenes that primarily served to describe who was standing/eating/talking where - and why! The sheer number of active characters was a bit hard to keep up with - both for the reader and the author (or so it seemed). But the story is quite engrossing. Don't let lack of editing keep you from this book!

More About the Author

Tracy Grant has been making up stories as long as she can remember and writing them down since third grade when she was assigned writing a story and realized she had a wealth of characters and plots inside her head. She studied British history at Stanford University and received the Firestone Award for Excellence in Research for her honors thesis on shifting conceptions of honor in late fifteenth century England. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she is on the board of the Merola Opera Program, a training program for professional opera singers, coaches, and stage directors. For more information about her books, please visit her website at http://www.tracygrant.org.