City of Masks

A Cree Black Thriller

By: Daniel Hecht

Narrated by: Anna Fields

Length: 15 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Introducing Cree Black, a parapsychologist with a haunted past.

When Lila Beauforte takes up residence in her ancestral home, the 150-year-old Beauforte House in the Garden District of New Orleans, she is terrified by ghostly apparitions. The family reluctantly calls Cree Black for help. Based out of Seattle, Cree, a parapsychologist with a degree from Harvard, is a "ghost buster." But as Cree gets closer to the truth, the proverbial skeletons in the closet of the prestigious Beauforte family come crashing down on her, and she must struggle to keep her own ghosts at bay.

Daniel Hecht has created a plausible, heart-stopping ghost thriller. Relying on the science of parapsychology to spine-tingling effect, he brings to life a remarkably compelling character in Cree Black, as well as the ghosts she confronts.

Listen to more Cree Black thrillers.

©2003 Daniel Hecht (P)2003 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"The authentic, supernatural locale contributes the requisite spooky atmosphere...and the eccentric characters are well drawn and believable." (Booklist)

Fun mystery set in New Orleans

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes, it's well narrated and gives a good glimpse of the city of New Orleans.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Learning the background of

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes, the character accents/portrayals were well done.

Was City of Masks worth the listening time?

Yes

Thriller?? You've got to be kidding!

If you like long drawn out romances where nothing happens, then you'll love this book.

Possibly good story ruined by narrator

The narrator did an exceptional job when she read the dialogue. She was able to give each character a distinct “voice” and even did a believable job with the voices of males and children. Unfortunately, when she read the narrative between the dialogue, she rattled it off in a repetitive cadence that wasn't exactly monotone, but reminded me of someone reading a laundry list. I kept trying to stay with it because the story seemed interesting, and the parts of the story with dialogue would recapture my interest, but ultimately, her boring recitation of the narrative lost me. I'm going to repurchase "CIty of Masks" as an eBook and give it another chance.

Painful

I don't know which is worse in this book - the writing or the reading. Maybe it goes somewhere interesting in the end, but I will never know because I could not get past the first quarter of the book. Buy it only if you are interested in self-absorbed heroines and sterotypical men.

Pretty Slow

This one is involved and has little action or real suspense..Purchase only if you like to be bored to death ....

A Romance Not a Thriller

I could not listen to more than 2 hours -- the main character is unsatisfying (to my mind) -- an emotional lightweight. Everything is very dramatic but nothing really happens. Lots of atmosphere and heavy breathing, no action. If you love romance novels, you may like this. If, like me, you don;t enjoy that genre, give this one a miss. I wish I had paid attention to the other review that said something similar.

Not for me

Different strokes for different folks, I guess, but I found the book slow, boring and tedious. No suspense at all. The characters were all predictable and had little depth. Maybe if the book was about 5 hours shorter, it would have been a more enjoyable read. I usually really like most books that have favorable reviews in general, but this one left me flat. Yawn.

Gothic Romance

This is just another modern day gothic romance with all the corn:irritating neurotic heroine whose love life, past and present, takes up more time than investigating malevolent spirits. I would love to find a real thriller instead of the current trend to have female,as well as male protaganists come with all kinds of personal baggage so that you have to listen to their stories and whinnings in the middle of the mystery. I consider this stuff just filler and a real distraction to a good plot.Give me the arrogance, single mindeness and self-assurance of Sherlock Holmes when the games afoot!

This book has a heroine who is very unconvincing as a parapsycologist. She is just too self-absorbed.The other characters are very steryotypical southern elite, with some deep dark secrets which contribute to the mystery of the story, however, they are very annoying figures. I guess I found this book very disappointing as I was looking forward to a good ghost story and not a trite romance.

Relationship story not a thriller

Too much time spend on character development, relationship description and useless history to minute detail. Too little time spend on making this a thriller you want to read on and on.. My tip start part 1 for 1 hour and then skip to part 2. Even then the ending is also disappointing.