City of Masks

Opening Sentence : '..."Cree - an unusual name. An Indian tribe isn't it - up in Manitoba or someplace? Your parents named you after them?" ...'

This is the first book in the Cree Black series and what a great start it is. Several of my mystery loving friends have recommended this series to me and I am sorry it took me a while to get to it.

This book is not a light and fluffy read, it is for the mystery reader looking for something unusual believable and a little scary.

Cree Black is one of a team of investigators who specialize in ghost removal. She is a clinical psychologist who discovered that ghosts exist and she is sensitive to them. This empathy she has also extends to those who are being haunted as well. She is hired to investigate show more the daughter of a socially prominent New Orleans family who is being haunted by a violent and menacing spirit.

A pig headed ghost repeatedly molests a woman in a family mansion, a news reported dies without any explanation in the kitchen, and the head of a family finds herself desperately trying to preserve what honor and sanity are left for her heirs. However to solve the mystery of the apparitions Cree needs to start the tortuous journey of unraveling her own issues.

Hecht captures the atmosphere and magic that lurks in New Orleans, and reveals what lies under the masks that the city, and her people, put on to hide what goes on below the surface. The novel so believable, even the ghost explanations and science. The characters, good and bad, came alive and leapt off the pages, they are all so believably tormented by events that they come across as entirely sympathetic. The story is edge of the seat creepy and suspenseful, with wonderful psycho-babble and, of course, the paranormal. Cree has to find out who the ghost is, why it is lingering and then get rid of it. To do that she has to find the secrets of her clients - and they are not going to reveal them in a hurry. show less

If you are fascinated with New Orleans, the history, the culture, the things that go bump in the night and a story of old southern snobbery resulting from inherited wealth, then this is the book for you.

I liked it so much that I had a difficult time putting it down. Cree Black is a paranormal investigator hired by a wealthy client who, because of vile things happening in her garden district mansion, feels as though she is literally going crazy.

Moving out of the mansion, still she is haunted by the events she saw. This is more than a psychological thriller, it is multi- layered and riveting. It is not hocus pocus or contrived for the sake of over the top scariness, rather is is well written and insightful.

Highly recommended.

In this fast-paced novel, Cree is a professional ghost hunter, whose job and mission is to assist clients who are haunted by actual ghosts from their past. Based in Seattle, she is hired by a woman in New Orleans whose life has been turned upside down by ghosts in the family home she wants to return to. As might be expected, the victim's family is fraught with secrets and betrayals, which Cree attempts to uncover. Meanwhile, she is unexpectedly attracted to the therapist treating the victim, but it is unclear just where his loyalties and belief systems lie. The twists and turns of this story are interesting and engaging, and the complexities of Cree's personality will make for an interesting series.

I can't decide whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. I love the premise (this is the 4) - a parapsychologist ghosthunter (Cree Black) from Seattle doing her thing in New Orleans... it really delves in to the fascinating "science" of ghosts. And the story she's trying to solve is twisted enough to keep it interesting, but it's a standard premise - a southern family trying to hide its skeletons. There was a rape, a couple of murders, the prerequisite whodunits, a Mardi-Gras party, and the usual cast of characters: icy mother, good old boy men, wounded strong-yet-fragile daughter, the devout maid who loved the children more than the mother (this precedes "The Help," but one can't help but make the comparison), the feisty show more seen-it-all-on-the-streets reporter... But Cree is a little too wounded and whiny to remain a likeable character. She sort of falls for a local psychiatrist, but can't get past her own ghosts to let anything happen. The self-pitying got pretty old for me. 2 stars for that.

Cree has a work partner - Ed - who never makes it to New Orleans, but is clearly carrying a torch for her. Maybe this thread develops in future books of the series, but it's pretty useless here since he never leaves his own ghostbusting in Gloucester MA. Only 1 star for that.

I think the author found it hard to complete the story; the first 3/4 are 1st person from Cree's perspective. Suddenly it falls back into a 3rd party telling, explaining to the reader everything they need to know, solving the whodunit, tying up the loose ends. While the revelations were mostly satisfying, the switch seemed an awfully lazy way of catching the reader up. Maybe the book had gotten too long & the editor forced the author to wrap it up. It's a good story (4 stars), but ineffective technique (2 stars).

This review is for the audio book; much of Anna Fields' delivery was spot on, Cree's Brookyn-spouting secretary Joyce was a HOOT, and Fields' absolutely nailed the southern accents. She seems to have trouble portraying un-southern white men. Ed and Paul sounded like an over-the-top Dan Ackroyd SNL commercial.

So I'll give the next in the series a try; there's real potential here for paranormal fans, and if Cree starts to get a grip on her life she could become a very likeable character. show less

Interesting character. My biggest beef with the story is related to point-of-view narration. Almost the entire first half is from the main character’s POV. Then, there is the sudden injection of long, introspective passages from a different character’s POV. It felt like the author couldn’t get all the information into the plot without significant dumps and used minor character POVs to accomplish this.

Which brings about my second dissatisfaction: long, introspective passages without much dialogue or action. Maybe that is peculiar to this genre - I’ve not read many books in this area.

I didn’t hate the book. Although, Black’s thick-headedness at times seems a bit unbelievable for a supposedly well-educated skeptic. I may try show more another book or two in the series before a final decision. show less

I really enjoyed this. Daniel Hecht wrote beautifully, and the narrator, Anna Fields, did a really great job. I got a real feel for New Orleans (one of my favorite settings) both physically and spiritually. I was engaged through the whole book and could barely stop myself from listening to take a break.

I'm not even sure how to classify this: mystery/thriller/suspense, or paranormal/urban fantasy? It was just this side of too normal to be full-blown urban fantasy, but it was definitely paranormal.

I thought it was a great device to have Cree take on the emotions (and accents/mannerisms) of the person she was working with. It was a smart way to add dimension and, yes, flaws to a character so she just couldn't breeze in, solve problems, and show more leave. Cree is flawed to begin with, and I liked that about her. She has her own issues to work through and it makes her very relatable to a flawed person like me. I look forward to seeing this character grow through the series.

I am very much looking forward to the second book, set in the Four Corners area of the American Southwest, another one of my favorite settings. show less

I really liked this book. Downloaded as a deal from Amazon for my Kindle and was so pleasantly surprised. Of course, I love anything with paranormal investigators and ghosts. This book has a particularly nasty ghost that is capable of more than just saying boo! A good read.