Freedom of the Mask

by Robert McCammon

Overview

This historical adventure filled with menace and mayhem by a New York Times–bestselling author “keep[s] the story twisting unpredictably. . . . [A] page-turner” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

At the dawn of the eighteenth century, Matthew Corbett, professional problem solver, has left New York for Charles Town on an assignment from his agency—and vanished. As his friend Hudson Greathouse sets out to track him down, he has no idea that Matthew is across the sea in London’s notorious Newgate Prison, accused of murdering a Prussian count and targeted by a masked vigilante. Now Hudson, accompanied by Matthew’s beloved Berry Grigsby, must sail to England in hopes of saving him in time . . .

Featuring Daniel Defoe as a fellow inmate at Newgate, this whirlwind tale of mystery and adventure comes from Robert McCammon, the multiple award-winning author of five previous novels featuring Matthew Corbett, as well as such classics as Swan Song and Boy’s Life.

“Rousing . . . Matthew quickly becomes embroiled in mysteries involving fellow inmate Daniel Defoe; a gin-running street gang, the Black-Eyed Broodies; a kidnapped Italian opera singer; and a masked avenger.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

Praise for the Matthew Corbett Novels

“Matthew is a very well designed character, very much a man of his time but also ahead of his time, as though he has stepped out of a modern-day crime lab into the early eighteenth century.” —Booklist

“This popular series takes us to a long forgotten time with characters who never fail to entertain.” —The Florida Times-Union

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781504068314
Publisher:	Open Road Media
Publication date:	08/17/2021
Series:	The Matthew Corbett Novels , #6
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	528
Sales rank:	188,709
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Robert McCammon (b. 1952) is one of the country’s most accomplished authors of modern horror and historical fiction, and a founder of the Horror Writers Association. Raised by his grandparents in Birmingham, Alabama, Bram Stoker and World Fantasy Award–winning McCammon published his first novel, the Revelations-inspired Baal, when he was only twenty-six. His writings continued in a supernatural vein throughout the 1980s, as he produced such bestselling titles as Swan Song, The Wolf’s Hour, and Stinger.

In 1991, Boy’s Life won the World Fantasy Award for best novel. After his next novel, Gone South, McCammon took a break from writing to spend more time with his family. He did not publish another novel until 2002’s Speaks the Nightbird. Since then, he has followed “problem-solver” Matthew Corbett through seven sequels, in addition to writing several non-series books, including The Border and The Listener. McCammon still lives in Birmingham.

Editorial Reviews

★ 03/21/2016
McCammon’s rousing sixth yarn featuring Matthew Corbett (after 2014’s The River of Souls) transports the early 18th-century American problem solver across the Atlantic to London, where he’s clapped into hellish Newgate Prison on murder charges. Matthew quickly becomes embroiled in mysteries involving fellow inmate Daniel Defoe; a gin-running street gang, the Black-Eyed Broodies; a kidnapped Italian opera singer; and a masked avenger named Albion, whose exploits are sensationalized (along with Matthew’s) in a penny dreadful broadsheet, the Pin—all the while with Matthew’s patron, Hudson Greathouse, and Matthew’s sweetheart, Berry Grigsby, in hot pursuit. McCammon’s intricate and intersecting subplots keep the story twisting unpredictably, and he adds menace to the mayhem with hellish descriptions of London straight out of a Hogarth engraving: all bawds and brutes a-wallow in the squalor of the city’s seamy street life. Fans of the series will race through this hefty page-turner to see where Matthew’s latest adventure leads him. Agent: Cameron McClure, Donald Maass Literary Agency. (May)

Publishers Weekly