Customer Reviews

Masques of Gold

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It is early in the 13th century and King John, the last of the sons of Elinor of Aquitaine, is on the throne of England. Normandy has been lost to France and now King Philip threatens Gascony. Meanwhile in London, an elderly goldsmith's abused body has been found by his sons and young second wife. The sons gather up all of their father's strong boxes of precious metals and jewels and most of their tools and flee leaving Madame Lissa to deal with the consequences of the goldsmith's death.

Sent for to investigate the murder is Sir Justin, captain of the London city guard, the force used to maintain order within the city walls. This is not a simple death. Peter de Flael was a wealthy merchant and one who had done work for King John himself. Sir Justin, more used to being feared than welcomed, finds himself distrusting Lissa's open admiration based on his behavior during the great fire in London a year before. Lissa herself had braved her miserly father's wrath to care for the stricken and observed Sir Justin's charitable behavior.

More a historical novel than a murder msytery, discovering the reason for Peter de Flael's death is only one of the narrative threads. There is also the development of the relationship between Lissa and Sir Justin against a backdrop of political struggle and Lissa's father's own machinations as he attempts to match wits against a powerful and amoral lord.

The characters are well drawn. Gellis does a very good job of portraying the contrast between the interests of the merchants of London and the great barons of England. Sir Justin and Lissa live in that nebulous area where wealthy merchants and the lesser gentry merge socially. While Sir Justin has his knighthood to offer Lissa, Lissa is also the heir to her father's substantial apothecary business.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a meaty historical novel with a strong romantic plot, engaging characters and a strong historical background.

Lissa de Flael is in for the shock of her life when her husband Peter, an older London goldsmith, is found dead on her doorstep. His sons run away and Lissa is left dealing with the investigation into the murder by warden of the peace Sir Justin FizAilwin. Of course you know Justin is handsome and mightily attracted to the much younger widow - although he keeps his feelings at bay at first until he's satisfied Lissa had nothing to do with the murder. Or was it a murder? Why did Lissa's father who runs an apothecary's shop wed her off to a goldsmith where her great talents mixing herbs and potions would be of little use? What is the mysterious object everyone is breaking heads and houses apart to find? What does her father know about this object and to what ends will he go to obtain it?

Despite a pretty decent start and a nice relationship between the two (the misunderstandings were a lot less severe than you find in most of Gellis' books), the big mystery fell a bit flat at the end, as well as Lissa and Justin being worked into the events leading up to the Baron's rebellion and the signing of the Magna Carta and I found myself skimming quite a bit towards the end just to get it over with. I did enjoy reading about the merchants guilds and the inner workings of their businesses and society, it's rare these days to find something that's not wholly centered on the court and it's courtiers - and for that reason only would I recommend it. Otherwise, it's best left for die-hard Gellis fans only.

Oh, and don't let that cover fool you. Outside of a few sex scenes a tad bit on the purple prose side, it's pretty tame by today's comparison.

I had read a review where someone thought the Masques of Gold was their favorite book so I checked it out. After I got into the book I thoroughly enjoyed it. It confused me at first with all the "Fitz's." After I was able to keep separate FitzWalter and FitzAilwyn, I could finally stay on track. I later found out that FITZ means the son of. It would of have helped if I had known that before. Great book--would recommend! It certainly shows how love is blind and how two people are really meant to be together. Another good phrase is....in the eye of the beholder!