Customer Reviews

Masques

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Steven Giroux suffers from nightmares. But, he stumbles into one during his waking hours that is far more frightening than his nocturnal episodes. A good, solid, scary, thriller/mystery. Not Pronzini'z best, but still very good. Bill Pronzini is one of the major talents in fiction today. His "Nameless Detective" series is classic. It baffles me that he is not better known by the general reading public. Maybe this book will be a good introduction to his talent. But, reader, don't stop here! explore the tresures of this prolific writer.

Having fun was a theme of Mardi Gras. Voodoo was mentioned in the guide book. The Pirate's Head Hotel had atmosphere. Steve Giroux was from San Francisco. He thought there was a kind of craziness to the carnival. He had been separated from his wife for six months. Someone called him about a photograph. The problem was he knew nothing of such a picture. New Orleans reminds him of Venice where he had gone five years previously on a package tour. The crowd of masked people in the streets makes him feel claustrophobic. His date for the evening is dressed as a voodoo queen. They go to a jazz club on Dauphine Street. He is astonished to discover that the woman, Juleen, believes in voodoo. She had been born in Metairie.

It is the following day. His memory of the previous evening is not clear. A woman named Mona invites him to have lunch with her. She has also gone through the aftershock of divorce. Again someone, in a menacing manner, seeks to take a phtograph from him and Steve knows nothing about it. The book is full of--well--voodooish atmosphere. Two days later Steve is still wondering whether Juleen is dead or alive. He receives a mysterious package at his hotel. It is a doll seemingly spurting blood.

Steven decides to tell Mona of the macabre events that have overtaken him. He feels a sense of relief. Later he runs into further causes of befuddlement, some of which involve the woman Mona. He finds that he is a sort of jester in a comic masque. "If I ever cease to love, if I ever cease to love...." Bill Pronzini does a professional and exciting job in the writing of this story on the theme of Mardi Gras.

Readers who have traveled to New Orleans (especially during Mardi Gras) will definitely want to read "Masques" because author Bill Pronzini does a great job describing the city, its streets and all the glitz, glamour and gratuitous behavior that is present during Mardi Gras.

As a story though, this pot-boiler is just so-so. Protagionist Steve Giroux is trying to put his life back together after a failed marriage and devastating fire to his photgraphy business. He thinks a trip to Mardi Gras is just the ticket. Wrong! He soons find himself persued by a masked reveler who seems to think that Giroux has a photograph that belongs to him. As Giroux attempts to sort all of this out he meets two lovely women each with a different agenda for him. What transpires is a race against time to stay alive and figure out the mystery regarding the photograph.

As some of the earlier reviewers have noted there are a few unbelievable premises regarding the plot that Pronzini just basically ignores. Why Giroux just simply doesn't involve the police is explained, but not satisfactorily enough to be feasible in this reviewer's mind.

An interesting "Twilight Zone-type" ending makes the book worth reading to the end. And at the very least, it IS a very quick read.

RECOMMENDED FOR HARD CORE PRONZINI FANS AND MARDI GRAS ATTENDEES

Pronzini has truly captured the feel of New Orleans in this dark, creepy, scary book with a really poor ending. However, he is a master at first person and bringing you into the thoughts and fears of his protagonist. While definitely not his best book, he kept me turning the pages way past my bedtime.

The plot is already outlined in several other reviews on this book.

My impressions of the book:

The 'action' or 'hook' doesn't start until about page 28.
Once it starts, the reader does have an inclination to want to know what is going to happen to the hapless protagonist, and the reader does start to feel sorry for him as the book progresses.
I was absolutely dissapointed in the ending -- it was pretty lame.
I think the author could have benefited by making Mona, the helpful woman that the protagonist hooks up with, either more mysterious herself, or give more clues about her past (although when the author described how her first husband died, I had an inkling).
Other reviewers noted that Mr. Pronzini had other books out that were even better and this was not a sample of his best work -- remember, even your worst work has to be great for others to be interested in all your other writings.

Masques is set in New Orleans during Mardi Gras and its protagonist is Steve Giroux ,a San Francisco photographer ,who is vacationing in the city following the break up of his marriage.
He is the centre of a disturbing series of events-being followed by a stranger in a dragon mask,receiving threatening phone calls demanding the return of a photograph that he knows nothing about ,and being picked up by a disturbed young woman named Juleen who is heavily into voodoo.On waking up in Juleen's bed following a torrid night of passion he is assailed by the fetid smell of blood emanating from the cellar of her house and assumes he has killed her ,thanks largely to being covered in blood.
Things get worse -he is beaten up ,his plane tickets stolen etc .His one ally is Mona ,a Milwaukeee widow who sets out to help Steve get to the bottom of things.
The climax is anti-climactic ,only partially redeemed by a very late plot twist and Steve is an ineffectual hero ,being carried along by events rather than grasping the nettle and doing anything about it.
The best bits are the passages about the city and New Orleans is vividly and evocatively portrayed in some striking descriptive writing.
Not the best .by a long chalk ,from this talented author but okay as a pot boiler in between the Nameles Detective series and the exemplary Westerns he writes

All the time I was reading Masques I could not stop from thinking that, if these events were happening to me, I'd just leave town. Nonetheless there are some truly disturbing and blood chilling moments in this suspense thriller that, even several years after reading it, I can still clearly recall. That says someting about Pronzini's skill as a writer. Recommended