A Mask of Shadows: A Novel (A Frey & McGray Mystery Book 3) Kindle Edition

I'd become a big fan of Oscar de Muriel's Frey and McGray series, but my local library didn't have some of them. So I turned to Amazon and I'm glad I did! This series has quickly become one of my favorites. I really enjoyed how he weaves history with fiction. Highly recommend this and the McGray and Frey series in general! De Muriel is a great story teller.

As always Oscar made me finish a book in a single reading! I loved everything about the book - the language, the mixture of historically accurate stories intertwined with fiction, and of course Frey and McGrey's relationship! Wonderful! Keep up the good work!

A. Excellent. Ok. I’m half way thru and enjoying as well as the rest of the series.

I am so happy that I found this author - these books are wonderful and hard to put down.

I read between half and two-thirds of this book. It was slow, nothing much was happening. I skipped to the end to get to something a little more interesting. I recommend Lock of the Dead.

The play’s the thing…My thanks to my contacts at Pegasus Books, Iris Blasi, Katie McGuire, and Maia Larson, for my copy of this book! Rock on!Shakespeare’s Macbeth is fraught with superstition, to the extent that Scottish Play. Any mention of the name Macbeth by any actor inside the theater requires actions said to lift the curse.Oscar de Muriel’s mismatched detectives have a new assignment. A banshee lurks beneath a bridge in Edinburg. The banshee seems involved with the production of Macbeth the Royal Lyceum Theater. Actor and producer legend Sir Henry Irving is currently staging the play there. The author states that the cast is genuine. All of the names were taken from a program at an actual performance.Bram Stoker, manager for Sir Henry, frets about the safety of the cast. There have been accidents before, which left a young girl disfigured by fire. Stoker seeks help from the police. Superintendent Campbell laughs and passes on the case. He sends Stoker to Inspector “Nine Nails” McCray and Inspector Frey.True to each man’s way of thinking, McCray believes the banshee to be real and Frey is certain that it is no such thing. Even so, it leaves messages scrawled in blood in and near the theater. They are lines from a sonnet, with prophetic promises of death and mayhem. Both mayhem and death soon follow in short order.I enjoyed the lines that Stoker would use in his masterpiece Dracula that show up from time to time. One of them would be “The dead who travel fast" for example. Oscar Wilde also appears, adding yet another historical figure to the mix. One of Wilde’s sonnets plays a part in the mystery.The mystery is wonderful, composed and action-filled start to finish. Danger, death, and destruction threaten on every hand. One interesting revelation comes only in the epilogue! Last minute reveals has been de Muriel’s style over the two previous books in this series, and he delivers big time! This is quite an enjoyable book! I give it a resounding five stars plus!Quoth the Raven…

I’ve loved Oscar’s books so far and so when he sent me book three, I was excited and nervous – would I like it as I did the first two? It’s about the Scottish play….curses and witches….a bit darker than the other two…No worries this was brilliant. Scary and very chilling in parts and whatever you think of the furore around the Scottish play, this, the largely true story behind its early days and the actors on the stage is utterly spellbinding. I swear history came to life – it’s as if Bram Stoker and Henry Irving and Ellen Terry were in the room with me – you can hear the swish of their cloaks and I could imagine Dracula was there too, it was all so shadowy and gothic.I have to go to Edinburgh soon and read this after dark – by gaslight outside the Lyceum. I feel the chills just thinking about it. with writing this powerful and evocative, it wouldn’t be impossible. Oh and I’ve been to Mary King’s Close and found that a bit spooky so that really helped me to immerse myself in the streets of Edinburgh.There’s something very very special about this book – Oscar de Muriel has captured the banter and the nuances of the Scottish vernacular and humour perfectly. The love.hate relationship between Frey and McGrey has me in tears one minute and jumping out my skin the next when he chastises him with yet another out of the blue scream of obscenities.This cries out to be on the television. There wouldn’t be many changes needed to Edinburgh that’s the scary thing. But you can visualise everything so clearly such is the brilliantly sharp writing, that all you have to do is read this book.The amount of care and attention to detail around the historical accuracy is simply stunning. I had heard some of this story having lived in the city years ago but never like this. In the hands of Oscar de Muriel, it’s a show stopping read. Locations within the novel on thebooktrail com

If you love Edinburgh, historical mysteries, and Macbeth, this book is for you. Be advised that it's not a lighthearted romp of a story and justice isn't quite done the way you might want. Plenty of characters, so don't snooze or you'll lose track of who's who.

it is a pity this novelist is not better known and his publishers do not feel that he is worthy of the hardback market. His last section wonderfully recreates the theatrical world of Henry Irving and Ellen Terry and the production of Macbeth in Edinburgh. The novelist demonstrates a very detailed knowledge of the theatre and the possibitiy of a fire and its consequences in the event of a fire.What is really lacking unfortunately is that even though he has read all the biographies of Henry Irving ,Irving's amazing personality in driving through the production of Macbeth and the underlying conflicts in his personal life. The use of Frey and McGray to hang the novelist's further output is also excellent and I am waiting keenly for the publication of the Loch of the Dead

I loved the two previous Frey and McGray books and this was a welcome addition to the series.The story centres around an highly anticipated performance of MacBeth and features some very recognisable characters it was great to see included. Oscar de Muriel obviously put lots of research into this book and you can clearly see it, it blends a lot of true history and weaves the fiction in and around it.Apparently this was going to be the first book which the author wrote for this series but he decided to wait until now to finish and publish it; I'm glad he did so as it has his very refined writing style and it comes together beautifully.Hard to talk too much about it without spoilers but we really get a good insight into McGray's turbulent family situation and a few new perspectives to the detectives relationship from outsiders. The usual mundane vs supernatural conflicts are all here and it was by far the best book in the series so far.The action was very exciting and I particularly like the way this author actually gives you enough information to build your own theories without making it too obvious.On a side note, I know you should never judge a book by its cover but I have to say these are some of the best designed books I have and look great on my bookshelf!A top read which intelligently blends fact and fiction in a very atmospheric 19th century detective story which blends the supernatural and Victorian police procedural. It's a great book and I would highly recommend getting it!

I loved the first two books in this series. This one was a tedious drag. No really serious crime of interest for about two thirds of the book. Had this been a conversation you would have said to the story teller...just get to the point!

Brilliantly devised story based on the Macbeth play staring Henry Irving and Helen Terry, yes they are main players in the story, as is Bram Stoker!A plot full of twists and turns that keeps the reader hooked from start to finish. A great detective series indeedy. On to the next one.

I enjoyed the characters in the story ,but found the story itself a bit hard to read .Shakespeare is a large part of the book and I never have read any Shakespeare , so Ifound the story a bit confusing at times