The Long Masquerade

Madeleine Brent is one of my favorite authors. He has a marvelous way of drawing out the suspense until you want to scream. His books are all ones you can't put down and The Long Masquerade is no exception. The heroine is a lovely English girl, living in Jamaica, innocent and trusting--to her detriment. Her husband is an unspeakable animal whom she can't escape. After enduring months with the beast, she finally works up the courage to run away with the help of her Chinese friend Daniel. They live aboard his boat for three years in relative happiness. The only thing holding her back from contentment is the fear that her husband will somehow track her. And so she masquerades as a coolie girl or sometimes even a boy--until she saves the life of an Englishman who changes her life. Her new persona is that of a proper English Miss, living and working with a brother and sister. Her heart is captured by the brother, but her feelings must be kept hidden due to her miserable past.

One trait of all M. Brent books is that they are told in first person by the main heroine, who is always honorable, moral and generous (a heroine you can truly admire and respect and long to be), and who always discovers, through the course of the book, her true origins, which is almost always accompanied by a dark mystery in her parents' past. This book is no exception, and of all nine M. Brent books, this is my absolute favorite! The heroine is raised by relatives in Jamaica, who arrange her marriage with an abusive man (no, they don't know he's unnatural, and there are no graphic details of the abuse). In one night of terror, her husband is killed and she escapes with a close friend (sort of an adopted father) on his boat. They live (platonically) on the boat sailing from port to port trading goods and living happily until they are shipwrecked and she saves the life of a sick man they had been taking to an island (sorry, for more exciting details you have to read the book, and it is verrrry exciting, and this is only a third of the way through :o). Her adopted father dies in the shipwreck, but the sick man gets well and takes her back to England, where she lives happily until a dark secret from the past rears its ugly head and sends her back to Jamaica in search of (to find out read the book!). I read the book in Czech so I can say nothing about the writing style in English, but I admired the heroine, I loved the hero, and the story kept me glued till the last pages with its intricate twists, multiple plot lines and gripping narrative...

I read this book when it was first published and it is as good now as it was then! I recommend it to anyone who likes action and adventure mixed with romance and mystery. The characters are strong and will make the story come alive for you.

I love all the Madeleine Brent books, but this is one of my favorites. It has it all - suspense, action, romance and mystery. The heroine is strong and adventurous, and the hero is tall, dark and mysterious. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, especially fans of gothic romance, and I am very disappointed that the Madeliene Brent books are no longer in print.