Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

City of Masks

Audiobook
0 of 2 copies available
Wait time: Available soon
0 of 2 copies available
Wait time: Available soon

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.

  • Creators

  • Series

  • Publisher

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      After her husband's death and a "visitation" of his spirit, Cree Black realizes she has special abilities. She opens a business to aid people experiencing hauntings. When Lila Beauforte moves back into her family manse in New Orleans and a series of horrific events follows, the family calls Cree's firm for assistance. Using scientific and paranormal research in addition to her empathic skills, Cree copes with skeptical relatives and nasty ectoplasmic manifestations. Anna Fields performs this plunge into a closet of family skeletons with conviction. As ghosts terrorize Lila and Cree, Anna Fields keeps the listener in thrall. Her characterizations are original, ranging from masked Mardi Gras monsters and juju women to hysterical victims and diabolical connivers. Throughout the engaging, if predictable, plot Fields is top-notch. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 6, 2003
      Hecht (Skull Session; The Babel Effect; etc.) introduces empathic investigator ("ghost buster" to the layman) Cree Black in a haunted house tale set—where else?—in a storied New Orleans mansion. Cree, an investigator of paranormal phenomena with a slick Seattle office, is retained by the vaguely sleazy Ronald Beauforte, the last scion of a decaying New Orleans family. His sister, Lila, is losing her mind, and she insists it is because her family's ancestral mansion is haunted. Cree is summoned South to see if she can use her empathic talents to suss out the ghosts and prevent Lila's disintegration. Cree is still nursing years-old grief over the death of her husband, even talking with him in her mind; this accounts for her sensitive psychic antennae, and also explains why she's loath to acknowledge the unsubtle romantic attentions of her business partner, Edgar. Since Edgar is tied up with another case, Cree has to fly solo to bayou country, facing down the Machiavellian Beauforte family matriarch, local hoodoo practitioners, and even a menacing hired gun with the sobriquet "Loup Garou." Hecht explains aspects of modern-day ghost hunting and offers a Faustian red herring in the form of a handsome young psychiatrist. Yet while he paints a rich, compelling picture of the world of paranormal research, the plot holds few surprises, and the characters' psychology and motives tend to be overexplained. Hecht's previous thrillers have been impressively sophisticated, but this predictable—though atmospheric—effort may cause readers to think they, too, have supernatural powers: they know how the book will end well before they've finished it. Author tour.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 5, 2004
      Hecht's New Age ghost story introduces Cree Black, a psychologist of renown transformed years ago into a hyper-empathic ghostbuster by a spectral visit from her beloved husband. Lured from her upscale Seattle offices to a spirit-infested mansion in the heart of decadent New Orleans, she immediately identifies with the haunted socialite Lila Beauforte. This allows reader Fields to showcase her skills, as Cree's somewhat brusque, unaccented speech subtly shifts into a quavering southern drawl. The actress also uses an impressive variety of bayou accents to distinguish the other New Orleanians—from the good ol' boy gruffness of Lila's worried husband to the cultured, iron magnolia locutions of her aristocratic mother. The novel has its share of spooky suspense—courtesy of anthropomorphic furniture, disappearing snakes and a pig-faced man-ghost with rape on its mind—and is filled with enough scientific rationale to make these sinister shades seem surprisingly credible. But the source of the ghosts isn't difficult to discern, and the many repeat analyses of the case elements will lead restless listeners to agree with Cree's assistant Joyce Wu when she complains (in Fields's amusingly on-target Long Island accent), "The metaphysics he-ah are a complete no-brain-ah, and I'm sick 'a goin' over it and over it." Based on the Bloomsbury hardcover (Forecasts, Jan. 6).

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Loading