Masquerade In London

London. 1861. Samantha Kingston has lived under the control of her overbearing uncle since the death of her parents six years ago. Trapped by the conventions of her gender and social class, she is desperate to find a way out. But when her aunt and uncle are murdered, the freedom she sought seems even further out of reach. A suspect in the crime, she finds herself on the run, unsure whom to trust, lost in the underworld she had only ever read about between the pages of a Dickens novel.V.T. Wyatt has defied his aristocratic upbringing to pursue a life as a private investigator. After an unusual first meeting, he hires Samantha to help him solve a rash of burglaries. Soon, a connection between the burglaries and the murders emerges, drawing Samantha and Wyatt even closer together as they race to solve both mysteries before Samantha becomes the next victim.

London 2012. Mithras, god among vampires, returns from diablerie at the fangs of Montgomery Coven. The Heralds of the Sun awaken from torpor unable to remember who they are, but driven to seek five artifacts to restore their master to his full glory. The Second Inquisition rises to burn London's Kindred to ashes. The characters find themselves embroiled in history as it unfolds. Their actions might see a god return, or cast him down to the darkness from whence he came. London burns under Operation Antigen, one of the earliest and most devastating attacks of the Second Inquisition. All the while they slowly uncover the shards of their own identities. What legacy do they leave? The Fall of London includes: A sprawling chronicle covering 6 large chapters 6 different endings tailored to the coterie's choices 5 pregenerated characters as the Heralds of the Sun 6 new Loresheets, including one for secret diablerists Statistics for 7 venerable elders, including Mithras and Queen Anne A detailed description of London, to facilitate additional chronicles before the Fall An epilogue to use for chronicles set after the Fall Made in the UK.

After being abruptly jilted, Sophie Kincaid flees to the place her friend Kim Aldredge calls heaven on earth. But Sophie's first taste of Edilean is far from heavenly: after her car breaks down on a country road, she is nearly run over by a speeding sports car. A small act of revenge brings some satisfaction, and word quickly spreads that a gorgeous newcomer gave the driver, the notoriously bitter Dr. Reede Aldredge, a dressing down! But it isn't the first time the fiery artist has gone too far for payback; a secret possession she carries with her could shatter her ex-boyfriend's future. Reede Aldredge has secrets, too, including a desire to get closer to the beauty who is turning his dark world upside-down. Under the night skies, their masquerade is magic-but will it turn to stardust by the light of day?

On his way to deliver a splendid necklace to the Sun from the Moon, Jack Hare is diverted by a series of odd characters and when he finally reaches his destination he realizes that the necklace is missing. The reader is invited to answer several riddles and solve the mystery from clues given in the text.

Carnival, that image of sensuous frivolity, is shown by Abner Cohen to be a masquerade for the dynamic relations between culture and politics. His masterful study details the transformation of a local, polyethnic London fair to a massive, exclusively West Indian carnival, known as "Europe's biggest street festival," which in 1976 occasioned a bloody confrontation between black youth and the police and which has since become a fiercely contested cultural event. Cohen contrasts the development of the London carnival with the development of other carnivalesque movements, including the Renaissance Pleasure Faire of California. His valuable analysis of these relatively little-explored urban cultural movements advances further the theoretical formulations developed in his previous studies.

Lady Celine Wexham seems the model British subject. French by birth but enjoying life in 1813 as a widowed English countess, she is in the unique position of being able to help those in need--or to spy for the notorious Napoleon Bonaparte. When Rees Phillips of the British Foreign Office is sent to pose as the countess's butler and discover where her true loyalties lie, he is confident he will uncover the truth. But the longer he is in her fashionable townhouse in London's West End, the more his staunch loyalty to the Crown begins to waver as he falls under Lady Wexham's spell. Will he find the proof he needs? And if she is a spy after all, will he do the right thing? Ruth Axtell deftly creates a world where black and white burst into a confusion of colors and no one is who they seem. Readers will be hooked from the very first scene to the final page.

Masquerade, both literal and metaphorical, is now a central concept on many disciplines. This timely volume explores and revisits the role of disguise in constructing, expressing and representing marginalised identities, and in undermining easy distinctions between 'true' identity and artifice. The book is interdisciplinary in approach, spanning a diverse range of cultures and narrative voices. It provides provocative and nuanced ways of thinking about masquerade as a tool for construction, and a tool for critique. The essays interrogate such themes as: *mask and carnival *fetish fashion *stigma of illegitimacy *femininity as masquerade *lesbian masks *cross-dressing in Jewish folk theatre *the mask in seventeenth and eighteenth century London and nineteenth century France *the voice as mask.

Return to the world of Rivers of London in this first short story collection from bestselling author, Ben Aaronovitch. Tales from the Folly is a carefully curated collection that gathers together previously published stories and brand new tales in the same place for the first time. Each tale features a new introduction from the author, filled with insight and anecdote offering the reader a deeper into this absorbing fictional world. This is a must read for any Rivers of London fan. Join Peter, Nightingale, Abigail, Agent Reynolds and Tobias Winter for a series of perfectly portioned tales. Discover what’s haunting a lonely motorway service station, who still wanders the shelves of a popular London bookshop, and what exactly happened to the River Lugg... With an introduction from internationally bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series, Charlaine Harris. This collection includes: The Home Crowd Advantage The Domestic The Cockpit The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Granny King of The Rats A Rare Book of Cunning Device A Dedicated Follower of Fashion Favourite Uncle Vanessa Sommer’s Other Christmas List Three Rivers, Two Husbands and a Baby Moments One-Three Praise for the Rivers of London series: “Ben Aaronovitch has created a wonderful world full of mystery, magic and fantastic characters. I love being there more than the real London” –Nick Frost “A superlative blend of whimsy and grit...Jim Butcher meets Douglas Adams” —Publishers Weekly “...my favorite current series... delightful, compulsive and fresh—with a love of multicultural London evident on every page, wonderfully diverse characters, magic, mystery, and mayhem. Once you start, you will literally not be able to put them down.” —Lavie Tidhar in Washington Post “...recounted with deadpan British wit and irony...packed with fascinating historical detail... Lively and amusing and different.” —Kirkus