Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
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As with Nicholas Griffin's earlier books, "The Masquerade" can be read as either a mainstream book with a literary style, or vice versa. It has all the ingredients of an adventure story, but an introspective angle that makes it worlds away from most books of this type. In short, it is the sort of novel that has very wide appeal.

Young Lord Stilwell is on his Grand Tour, accompanied by enigmatic tutor Lucius Jelborne and his valet Thomas Noon. Stilwell and Noon have grown up together and it is Noon's viewpoint that concerns us largely - a servant with a gentleman's education but without the means or position to enjoy it. This will also be one Grand Tour that concerns itself not with Italy's past but with England's present, for the new Hanoverian King George I has just ascended the throne and the trio soon find themselves plunged into intrigue, while Noon suffers the pangs of love and discovers much about his companions and the world around him, but far more about himself.

Here are several stories within a story, all packed up like a portmanteau. On the surface is the tale of a Grand Tour with undercurrents of espionage, while fitted inside that are the individual tales of the characters. None of them are what they seem on the surface. Delving into this book is like diving into a calm pond. Threaded through is the metaphor of doing just that as Noon takes his swims in many different places. A highly sophisticated and thought-provoking treat - and not just for literary fans.