Masquerade

Jeff Woodman and Emily Gray reprise their roles as Phil Beaumont and Jane Turner, Pinkerton detectives, in this sequel to ESCAPADE. The scene is Paris in the early 1920s. When a philandering publicist and his mistress are found dead, the police are content to call it suicide, but the man's mother isn't satisfied and hires Pinkerton. Though the case is investigated and solved, it isn't nearly as interesting as what goes on around it--the city, its ex-pat inhabitants, and political intrigues. Both readers shine. Woodman's part is straight narration; Gray's takes the form of Jane's letters to a friend back in England. The two play off each other, as do many of the main characters. Woodman's take on the French detective with the penchant for gourmet food stands out, and Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, an Irish bar owner, Hemingway, and Jane's American charges are convincing as well. Look for more to come in this excellent series. J.B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

June 28, 2010
Moser writes inspirational fiction with a strong, historically accurate foundation in this new offering, set in 1885 in New York City. Twin protagonists Charlotte Gleason, wealthy English heiress, and Dora Connors, her maid, decide to take fate (and love) into their own hands and switch places upon their arrival in America. Dora, having never experienced material comfort, jumps at the chance to "become" Charlotte and marry a very wealthy American suitor, Conrad Tremaine, in Charlotte's stead. Charlotte, whose idea it was to trade places, finds herself penniless and on the streets of New York, alone and desperate. Both young women find themselves utterly discombobulated and ill-at-ease pretending to be the other. Through some expected plot twists, Charlotte and Dora learn a few tricks, and lessons, about life. In the end, they find their way back to being comfortable in their own skins. Moser's work is nicely done and thoroughly entertaining throughout, even with a predictable storyline.