In 1702, a vicious serial killer terrorizes the bustling
city of New York. The killer targets respected citizens
with no obvious links to one another. A young inquisitive
clerk, Matthew Corbett, becomes drawn into the murders.
Matthew always looks for answers regardless of where it
leads him. This mental acuity and honesty leads him to Mrs.
Herrald, a businesswoman, who is impressed with his ability
to evaluate and analyze facts. She offers him a position as
a problem-solver.
Using his eye for detail, Matthew tackles his first
assignment of finding the serial killer, now dubbed by the
press as "the Masker." Matthew looks at forensic clues from
the murder sites provided by a brilliant doctor. In his
investigation, Matthew explores the human spirit and its
ability to withstand unspeakable terrors. He struggles with
the injustice he sees and the realization that not all evil
can be brought to justice.
In his second Matthew Corbett novel, Robert McCammon
evokes a richly detailed life of historical New York City.
He captures the dark side of human nature and interweaves
it with a complex plot in an emotionally charged page-
turner. At the violent and surprising climax, McCammon
leaves some plot elements unsolved for the next installment
of this superior series.
His epic masterwork Speaks the Nightbird, a tour
de force of witch
hunt terror in a colonial town, was
hailed by Sandra Brown as "deeply
satisfying...told with
matchless insight into the human soul." Now, Robert
McCammon brings the hero of that spellbinding novel,
Matthew Corbett, to eighteenth-century New York, where a
killer wields a bloody and terrifying power over a
bustling city carving out its identity -- and over
Matthew's own uncertain destiny.
The unsolved
murder of a respected doctor has sent ripples of fear
throughout a city teeming with life and noise and
commerce. Who snuffed out the good man's life with the
slash of a blade on a midnight street? The local
printmaster has labeled the fiend "the Masker," adding
fuel to a volatile mystery...and when the Masker claims a
new victim, hardworking young law clerk Matthew Corbett is
lured into a maze of forensic clues and heart-pounding
investigation that will both test his natural penchant for
detection and inflame his hunger for justice.
In the
strangest twist of all, the key to unmasking the Masker
may await in an asylum where the Queen of Bedlam reigns --
and only a man of Matthew's reason and empathy can unlock
her secrets. From the seaport to Wall Street, from society
mansions to gutters glimmering with blood spilled by a
deviant, Matthew's quest will tauntingly reveal the
answers he seeks -- and the chilling truths he cannot
escape.