Freedom of the Mask

I loved it, loved everything about it, so it looks like I just found a new series to start, also can't believe that I didn't realize that I know the author's name Robert McCammon, since I read one of his previous books and I own that book and just finished it last month and that book is Wolf's Hour. Can't wait to start getting this series.

Freedom of the Mask defies any pat descriptions. Yes, it's the 6th entry in Robert McCammon's historical fiction series, but it's also an action, adventure mystery as well.

London in 1703 is one filthy place. In addition to all of the nasty problems due to overcrowding, there are gangs competing against each other for territory, and a new type of addicting alcohol available that's turning many people into shadows of their former selves. Matthew Corbett finds himself there after an incident which occurred at sea, and then he finds himself locked up in the infamous Newgate Prison.

Berry Grigsby teams up with the indomitable Hudson Greathouse to find Matthew and bring him back home to the small city, (as compared to London), of New York. It is always great to "see" these two whenever they appear. Berry is the sweetest girl ever and Hudson is a formidable but great man, and a true friend.

That's all I can say about the plot other than that Freedom of the Mask took some very dark turns and there were a few scenes that were quite disturbing. When one has a mask on, they have the ability to do things in secret. Whether they be good or bad things the reader has to decide for themselves-but that's the freedom referred to in the title.

I'm always excited for a new McCammon book because they never let me down. This one was no exception: amnesia, battles at sea, swordfights, crazy carriage rides, and outrageously evil villains!. Freedom of the Mask is a lot of things, as I mentioned at the start of this review, but for me it was 100% pure FUN.

Highly recommended to fans of historical mysteries and action adventure tales!

You can buy your copy here: http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Mask-Robert-McCammon/dp/1596067756?ie=UTF8&keywords=freedom%20of%20the%20mask&qid=1464438254&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

*I received a free e-ARC of this book via Net Galley in exchange for my honest review. This is it. *

Freedom of The Mask by Robert McCammon- The sixth volume in the Mathew Corbett series by Robert McCammon begins with his colleague, Hudson Greathouse, searching through 1703 Charles Town, looking for any signs of his young friend's whereabouts. Corbett, a professional "Problem Solver" is missing while on assignment for the Herald Agency. Meanwhile Corbett, himself, is arriving at the docks of Londontown, England in chains, and accused of murder, and finally sent to Newgate prison, where he sparks the fancy of a mask-wearing killer. Hudson and Corbett's true love, Berry Grigsby follow him across the Atlantic, hoping to save him from cruel fate. This is actually my first Mathew Corbett book, but if the rest are as well done as this, I have no reservations for recommending the lot! The story moves briskly enough to keep your interest and the historical details make it an atmospheric delight. I've read some of McCammon's earlier horror novels( The Wolf's Hour, The Night Boat, Boy's Life) and always found them very intense. He maintains that intensity still with this series and colors it with the historical trappings, making for an enjoyable read. If you can, I recommend getting the Subterranean Press issue just for the great job they do with all their releases

I have read all six novels of Robert McCammons Matthew Corbett series. All are captivating and great reads.

Freedom of the Mask has a very busy storyline,, and I think it loses some character depth as a result.

The visuals and narrative description of London in the 1700's was amazing, and even to the point of being educational for me.

As always, Robert McCammon delivers.

The Freedom of the Mask is the sixth in Robert McCammon’s “Matthew Corbett” series; the series follows an eighteenth century law-clerk-turned-private-investigator, as he attempts to solve various unpalatable ‘problems’ as part of a nascent investigative agency. Along the way he runs into hypnotists, witches, alligators, and the occasional criminal mastermind.

By this sixth book, Matthew Corbett has had a tough run of luck. Barely surviving a battle in a swamp, and suffering a traumatic head injury, he begins the text being transported, all unknowing, to Professor Fell – a transcontinental underworld kingpin, who would no doubt like to cause Corbett a degree of agony. At the same time, his colleague, Hudson Greathouse, and his on-again-off-again love interest, Berry Grigsby, set out in search of the missing investigator. Given that this is McCammon, it’s probably no surprise that things do not go entirely to plan, for any party.
This is the first book of the series to take place outside of the United States – indeed, the larger portion of the text occurs in London and surrounding environs. McCammon pulls out all the stops here; his London is a grotesquery, an urban hellscape, populated with gin-soaked gangsters and child-madams, murderers, thieves, and uncaring gentry, all appearing and disappearing in a thick blanket of yellow fog. It’s a den of vice and iniquity, and McCammon manages to paint it as such, unapologetically, but lyrically, and with an eye to reinforcing a growing sense of unease, repulsion and simmering horror in the reader. His London is unpleasantly, oozingly alive, coming off the page and into the mind like a brooding stain.

There’s other environs of course. At one point we visit a charming little village in Wales, which gets the full treatment of bucolic splendour. It’s also got a wonderful atmosphere of insidious awfulness, which McCammon evokes masterfully. His world building is vivid and deeply disturbing stuff, and a pleasure to read – albeit a worrying one.

From a character standpoint, we spend most of our time riding along with Matthew again. There are some chapters with Hudson Greathouse as the point-of-view, which act as a nice contrast. McCammon shows that he can spin out a very different voice to that of Matthew Corbett, when given the chance – Greathouse is stubborn, cautious, pragmatic and in some instances highly dangerous. His approach to obstacles, which may or may not involve throwing a table at them, is a joy. Greathouse, the older of the investigators, has a stability of character which it’s great to see more of – and acts as a foil to the rather more mercurial Corbett. Corbett, though, continues to be hardened by his experiences. He’s grown something of a thicker skin, and whilst there’s still an iron core of morality floating at his centre, he’s also prepared to be a little more flexible in his company. Imagining the young law clerk of five books previously associating with gangster and killers is unthinkable – but Corbett slips into London’s underworld, and if he doesn’t cause a ripple, he’s certainly not being used as bait. This slow move of Matthew into a greyer moral existence is intriguing to watch, and credit to the author for making it seem eminently plausible. Matthew’s head is always great fun to inhabit, even when he’s being insufferable – and he’s less so than usual here, feeling more the focused man of action than the fop.

There’s also time spent on Matthew’s relationship with Berry, and we get further insight into the character of that arch-rogue, Professor Fell; in both cases, I won’t approach closely, but will say that their decisions are intriguing, and the depths of character revealed by those actions are equally fascinating.

Plot-wise – well, again, I’ll avoid spoilers. But there’s a lot going on here. By the end of the book, I was turning pages what felt like three at a time to find out what would happen next, and what was happening felt like a solid punch in the gut. There’s a slow burn at the start of the narrative, but McCammon builds the tension out expertly, and each moment of revelation or catharsis is made all the more explosive thereby. There’s more gothic horror and dread crawling around on these pages with each instalment, and this is no exception – it’s terrifying, horrifying, and a great read.

Featuring series protagonist, Matthew Corbett problem solver, this well written thriller is notable for its historical underpinnings in colonial America and early eighteenth century England. I have been reading McCammon since the eighties and his books never fail to disappoint. He is above all a storyteller and in Freedom of the Mask he tells a great story.

Robert McCammon's Matthew Corbett series continues with the sixth installment, FREEDOM OF THE MASK.

When we last saw McCammon's plucky young protagonist, Matthew Corbett, he was in dire straits. Matthew, suffering from amnesia brought on by a severe head injury, was in the clutches of his old enemy, Count Anton Mannerheim Dahlgren, heading back to England as a peace offering from Dahlgren to his estranged master, Professor Fell. McCammon splits the opening section of the book into two distinct voyages: Matthew and Dahlgren's horrific passage about a decrepit ship, and the parallel tale of Matthew's friends Hudson Greathouse and Berry Grigsby making their own way to London, following the meager clues left in Matthew's wake.

Matthew arrives before his friends, much the worse for the voyage. Charged with the shipboard murder of Count Dahlgren, Matthew finds himself thrown into London's nightmarish prison system, living among the worst that London has to offer.

Even though his body is imprisoned, Matthew's inquisitive mind will not be shackled, and he soon sets his problem-solving skills to work on a new mystery that is vexing the city: A masked vigilante named Albion, who is slaughtering recently-released inmates. Who is this mysterious killer, and what is his interest in Matthew?

After the short diversion that was Matthew's last adventure, THE RIVER OF SOULS, McCammon plunges his audience back into another Corbett epic with the massive FREEDOM OF THE MASK. The book is filled with old faces, both friendly and fiendish, and McCammon advances the overarching Professor Fell plotline, upping the stakes exponentially. By the end of this adventure, those stakes have never been higher, and readers will be cursing the wait until the next Corbett adventure.

Subterranean Press scored a coup when they signed McCammon, and fans of literary fiction owe them a great debt, not only for presenting McCammon's catalog to a new generation of fans, but for bringing forth so many great new novels from someone who had been silent for too long. Eventually, McCammon will wrap up Matthew Corbett's tale, and that will be a sad day, but until then, this reader is firmly under the storyteller's spell, counting the days until the next adventure, and wondering: "How in the hell will Matthew get out of this one?"

Subterranean Press provided a review copy.