City of Masks

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Foray into the Supernatural
Review: As a History major with a concentration in New Orleans history, I approached this book with some skepticism as many authors stereotype the city. However, I found a refreshing change in City of Masks in which Daniel Hecht paints a very accurate picture of New Orleans from the rich suburbs of the Lakefront to the seemy underbelly of Bourbon Street.

In the novel, Hecht introduces us to Cree Black, a parapsychologist with a penchant for dealing with ghosts on an emotional level. Her method of ghost busting relies on dealing with the emotional cause of the haunting and helping the spirit to move on past its unresolved issues. It was a good change from the standard apparition or ghost that has come to inhabit most horror tales. While Hecht does explore the science and psychology of hauntings, I found that the book did occasionally get bogged down in description.

Cree's first assignment takes her to New Orleans where she is hired to rid Beauforte House of an evil presence. An interesting cast of characters awaits ranging from Lila Beauforte, the plagued victim of the hauntings, to Dr. Paul Fitzpatrick, the psychologist of Lila and the "love-interest" of Cree, to Ronald Beauforte, the eccentric and spoiled brother of the Lila.

Throw into the mix voodoo and hoodoo, two ghostly entities possessing Beauforte house, a closet full of skeletons, the mystery of Mardi Gras and the mystique of New Orleans and its rich culture and you have a wonderful tale. All of these things make a rich gumbo to savor.

Hecht has done an excellent job in creating Cree Black. She is a well-rounded character that plays well off of the other characters in the book. She is self sufficient, smart and resourceful while showing her feminine side. Everything that one could want in a heroine.

In all, Hecht does an excellent job of keeping the story fast paced and interesting and through his development shows just why New Orleans can be called a City of Masks.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent read!!
Review: Daniel Hecht has certainly done his homework with this wonderfully written book. He describes the city of New Orleans very accurately, and all of the characters fit into the backdrop seamlessly. I certainly look forward to reading the next novel in the Cree Black series. She is a very likeable character with a fascinating gift. I can't wait to see where Cree will end up next, perhaps with Dr. Paul Fitzpatrick by her side? Don't keep us waiting too long Mr. Hecht!!

Rating:
Summary: A new direction
Review: Daniel Hecht isn't capable of writing a bad book or of writing badly. With an imagination as fertile as his, and with superior writing/narrative skill, whatever he tackles is never less than intriguing. City of Masks is no exception. Hecht tackles the world of the paranormal via engaging heroine Cree Black--a thoroughly believable, fully dimensional woman who just happens to be a ghost-hunting psychologist.

Hecht flirts perilously close to dubious territory in having his characters posit the possibilities of recovered/repressed memory (discredited by courts and by the APA) and multiple personality disorder (discredited universally--but so beloved by its supposed victims that it's been renamed DID) and satantic ritual abuse (again, discredited.) Despite these flirtations with discredibted syndromes, it is a credit to the author that he never goes all the way down any of those roads and, in fact, builds a viable case for sad, haunted Lila--whose ghosts Cree has come to New Orleans to "bust."

The characters are so well drawn and so believably driven/tormented/haunted that they come across as entirely sympathetic. And the author's research into the city of New Orleans is seamlessly woven into the narrative so that we see the city through Cree's eyes, rather than through the author's--no small feat.

While the villain of the piece was obvious to me very early on, it was nevertheless fascinating to see how the author was going to take us there and to learn what surprises were in store. And, indeed, there are some unexpected twists. The achievement of this book is the author's ability to make us care about his central characters, thereby making us willing to travel with them into territory where suspension of disbelief might not otherwise be possible. Most of us are willing to entertain the possibility that there might be ghosts; Hecht extrapolates on the possibilities in convincing fashion.
Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Self Help for Ghosts....
Review: Freud look out! City of Masks is the story of Cree Black, troubled parapsychologists who uses her empathic talent to commune with ghosts and banish them. Unfortunately, her talent is emotionally dangerous and risky, and when she is called by a wealthy client to investigate a haunted house in New Orleans, she is soon sucked into an almost soap-operatic level of drama, deceit and betrayal.

I listened to the unabridged audio version of City of Masks narrated by Anna Fields. I must say, that Anna Fields is not my favorite narrator. She has sort of a drowsy emotionless voice which /really/ grates on my nerves. She does female characters well. But the male characters sound drunk and crude. Not the best choice of narrators.

The story? At first I liked Cree Black. But I felt she had way too much baggage. Everyone has issues. The nurse, the doctor, her partner, the family. Enough already. I wanted to read about the ghosts and the paranormal stuff... Instead we have to hear about Cree's problems. Her whining, psychoanalysis hand wringing, guilt, psychobabble just got old. If anyone needs a psychiatrist, its Cree Black! The heroine was dysfunctional and unprofessional. Tiresome.

Also? It kind of icked me out that Cree was having a romance right in the middle of a case which should have required her full attention. Also, that the love interest was another shrink boyfriend who was constantly analyzing her, LIED to her, and then spends half the book thinking she's crazy. Not romantic. Not even close.

Finally, I got the impression that the author was trying too hard with the 'dynasty-style' southern family. Perhaps its different in the south, but I found the attitudes expressed by Lila and her mother and Ro-Ro antiquated and difficult to relate too.

I give City of Masks 3 stars. I didn't like Cree's lack of professionalism, or her relationship to the psychiatrist which seemed unhealthy and tedious.

Rating:
Summary: Modern Science meets the Ghostbusters
Review: From page one I knew that this book was the pick of the litter from my local chain bookstore. It happened to be a second string choice for me but it turned into the best book I have purchased since Patricia Cornwell's 'Kay Scarpetta' novels.
Cree Black reads as a very likeable and down to earth person, an easy to relate to character although, sometimes I could hear myself screaming "Dont go in there!" to her as I read some of the more spine tingling and scary situations she put herself into. The addition of modern science adds so much to this story that I almost believed in ghosts myself.
While this book shows some of the darker or seedier sides of New Orleans it is also charming and nostalgic in its descriptions. I loved the history, the cemetaries and the old Beauforte house. What great descriptive detail this writer gives! I look forward to much more ghost hunting tales with Cree Black and Daniel Hecht. Hurry Daniel, I want more.