The Mask Collectors

A Novel

De: Ruvanee Pietersz Vilhauer

Narrado por: Vivienne Leheny

A murder investigation becomes a dance with the devil in a breakthrough novel of illusion, conspiracy, and belief.

The alumni of an international boarding school have gathered at a campground in rural New Jersey when a scream breaks the silence of the woods. Classmates are shocked to find journalist Angie Osborne suddenly dead. The medical examiner’s report isn’t what anyone expects. Oddly, the death scene reminds anthropologist Duncan McCloud of a thovile, a Sri Lankan ritual he’s spent years studying.

When Duncan’s new employer, a pharmaceutical giant, sends him overseas under shadowy pretenses, and his wife, Dr. Grace McCloud, starts to receive anonymous warnings to doubt everyone and everything, the threads of a sweeping conspiracy begin to unravel. Risking more than their own lives, Duncan and Grace embark on a treacherous journey through occult ceremonies and their own hidden pasts to discover a secret worth killing for.

In taut, precise language, Ruvanee Pietersz Vilhauer’s debut novel The Mask Collectors tells a story about deception, the power of belief, and what is left unspoken between husbands and wives.

©2019 by Ruvanee Pietersz Vilhauer. (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

The Mask Collectors

An unusual book & maybe a first chapter explaining something about the folk of Senegal might have helped. Either the translator didn't translate everything or s/he wasn't fluent in English. I kept having the feeling that something was lacking in the narrative. It seemed as if this was not the author's first book. Maybe it was the first book that that was translated & recorded for Audible. An Editor was needed. The Narrator was inconsistent in sounding as if someone was from Senegal. Is French a major language there? Obviously the author knew about masks & what they represented but it was unclear if anyone was still using them in Senegal. Perhaps there was an editor who cut things out but something made those necessary for Americans to understand. Overall it was okay & at any number of times I was engrossed but it just felt choppy. Made me wonder when the book was written.

Great story but ...

I enjoyed the story but wish that the narrator had a more authentic accent when performing the characters in Sri Lanka. I didn’t feel like I was transported there, which was a bit disappointing.
I had some trouble with the believability in the premise of the story and wish that it could have related more to the masks that were introduced.
All in all, though a good listen.

Way Too Slow for Me /DNF

Sorry, I stuck with it for 50% of the book, which was a snooze fest for me, just overly drawn out and confusing backround info. I will say that at about the point where I left, there was some action beginning. But by then I just didn't care.