Overbooked - Author Walter Satterthwait

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Walter Satterthwait - Masquerade

Masquerade, published by St Martin's Press
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Paperback: ISBN: 0312969899 List Price: $5.99 May 1999

Hardback: ISBN: 0312186290 List Price: $22.95 July 1998

* About Masquerade * Reviews * Links * Excerpt

About Masquerade - Was Hemingway a Klutz?

A couple of people have pointed out, in private e-mail, that I haven't explained what MASQUERADE, the sequel to ESCAPADE, actually is. Sorry about that. I've been so close to the book for nearly 2 years that I sometimes forget I'm the only one who knows what happens in it.

Okay. It's set in Paris in 1923. Phil Beaumont, the Pinkerton agent from ESCAPADE, is investigating the death of a decadent young American publisher. The Paris police believe that the man died in a suicide pact with his German mistress -- the bodies were found, after all, in a locked room. Jane Turner, another escapee from ESCAPADE, is a Pinkerton now herself, and (unknown to Phil) she's conducting a separate investigation into the same case.

Phil gets to hobnob with the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein, as well as with the decadent young publisher's decadent young wife, and with an Englishwoman who writes mysteries (and whose past is fairly mysterious in its own right).

Jane gets to hobnob with Ernie and Gertrude, too, and with a dashing French count, and with Erik Satie and Pablo Picasso.

The book has got pretty much everything. Mont Saint-Michel, Chartres Cathedral, sinister American gangsters, a shrewd French police inspector, a headlong chase through the sewers of Paris, an automobile race around the central market, cocktails at Le Dome, sausages at Brasserie Lipp, gunplay, swordplay, drugs, jazz singers, croissants, Nazis, lots of artists and writers (did I mention Pablo Picasso?), and some terrific gourmet recipes. All great stuff, I think. But then I may be biased.

Some other folks have asked me whether Hemingway was actually as clumsy as I've portrayed him in the book. In case anyone else wants to know, I think that while he was certainly accident prone throughout all of his life, he may not have been _quite_ as klutzy as I've made him.

Hemingway first makes his appearance in Chapter Four. masquerade.gif - 14751 Bytes

Regards, Walter

Reviews

Paul Bergin's Mystery Scene review

There was a fair amount of grumbling among aficionados when Walter Satterthwait announced that he was discontinuing the Joshua Croft/Rita Mon dragon series. I did a lot of it myself. We are not so rich in tough, intelligent, well-written PI series that the passing of one of the better ones should go unlamented -- or ungrumbled, if you will.

I greeted the news that he was taking this measure in order to concentrate on historical mysteries with something akin to horror. I don't much like historical mysteries. They have always struck me as the refuge of the amateur historian with delusions of grandeur. Stilted language can be substituted for real dialogue with impunity and an assumption of total ignorance on the reader's part as far as historical knowledge is concerned is usually rewarded. Not my flagon of mead at all. When Masquerade (St. Martin's, $22.95) arrived, I opened it with a mixture of curiosity and loathing, prepared for the worst.

I should have known better. Accomplished writers don't become hacks just by changing direction. With the Croft/Mondragon series, Walter Satterthwait showed himself to be very accomplished, indeed. Masquerade can only amplify that reputation. Yes, it's an historical, but one featuring sharp dialogue, a remarkably evocative sense of place, sly, generally under stated humor and a sense of the absurd entirely in keeping with its setting.

Ace Pinkerton operative Phil Beaumont arrives in the Paris of 1923 to investigate the apparent suicide of Richard Forsythe, playboy, sexual adventurer, publisher, and moth diving at the flame of the Lost Generation - Beaumont's guide and erstwhile partner in the undertaking is Henri Ledoq, a bon vivant, gourmet, womanizer and occasional freelancer for the Pinks whose laconic humor, heartfelt pride in all things French and tireless loquaciousness provide an apt foil for the all- business, meat and potatoes, speak only when necessary Yank.

Besides the widow, who combines the unstudied sexiness of Betty Boop and the mental acuity of a valley girl, they quickly make the acquaintance of several Lost Generation luminaries, most notably Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. The author's treatment of each is generally in keeping with historical accounts, but tinted with humorous affection. Hemingway comes across as incredibly clumsy, brash and entirely too sure of his effect on women, but generally a uncomplicated, earnest sort of fellow. Stein is a resolutely didactic Earth Mother, blithely confident of her place in the literary Pantheon. Agatha Christie also makes an appearance, though under another name.

Beaumont's first person narrative of his and Ledoq's explorations is intercut with letters from Jane Turner, another Pink, currently undercover as a member of the Forsythe family's domestic staff, to a school chum. It's a risky technique that easily could have backfired on the author, but Mr. Satterthwait brings it off well. Instead of interrupting and distracting from the narrative, Jane's letters give the reader a fuller picture of events by offering a view from a different (and feminine) perspective.

Masquerade is not going to make the Times Notable Novels list, but I doubt that that is going to bother the author much. Clearly conceived as an entertainment, the novel succeeds on every level. The scene of Beaumont and Gertrude Stein -- she in drag, he dressed as a pirate -- racing toward the final showdown through pouring rain in an open car named Godiva is, alone, worth the price of the book.

Farewell Joshua and Rita. Welcome Phil and Jane!

Crime by Marilyn Stasio - New York Time Book Review,
September 27, 1998, page 26

The only way to see Paris is the way that Walter Satterthwait invites us to see it in Masquerade: in the company of Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway (and Juan and Bob and Pablo and Man Ray and Kiki and Djuna), and under the wing of Inspector Henri Ledoq, a gourmandizing French detective on intimate terms with the cuisine. Much of this drollery is lost on Phil Beaumont, a Pinkerton agent sent to Paris in 1923 to investigate the death of Richard Forsythe, a wealthy American publisher ( "a dilettante. And a pervert" ), in an apparent suicide pact with his German mistress. While Beaumont gets into ballroom fights and drags Ledoq through the sewers, his colleague and love interest, Jane Turner, works the investigation from the social angle, as an undercover nanny in the Forsythe household. This offbeat couple handle the sleuthing chores with flair, but for sheer panache, Gertrude Stein and Ledoq walk away with this witty pen-in-cheek adventure.

Boston Globe, August 30, 1998,
Robin W. Winks

Less well known, but to me always enjoyable is Walter Satterthwait, whose Masquerade is a sequel to Escapade, and is set in Paris in 1923. I dislike most historical mysteries, but not this one, in which a Pinkerton agent investigates the death of an American publisher. Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and Inspector Maigret play roles along the way, though I liked Alice B. Toklas best, and Satterthwait does a fine job - a masterful job, one might say - with the historical scene, the literary figures, and all the elements of the traditional locked-room mystery.

Denver Post, August 2, 1998
Tom and Enid Schantz

We simply cannot think of a more delightful way to spend a long hot summer afternoon than curling up (preferably in a cool place) and reading Walter Satterthwait's Masquerade, his second historical mystery to feature Pinkerton operatives Phil Beaumont, an American, and Jane Turner, an Englishwoman. This time they find themselves in a legendary time and place: Paris, 1923, a city that fairly glittered with genius and talent.

Beaumont has been assigned to investigate the death of Richard Forsythe, a rich decadent American dilettante who dabbled in publishing, drugs, and kinky sex and who died in an apparent suicide pact with his beautiful mistress and equally decadent Nazi mistress. Jane has also been assigned to the case, working undercover as a nanny with another part of the branch of the family. Neither knows that the other is involved, and their paths don't cross until late in the story.

When he arrives in Paris, Beaumont is taken under the wing of Henri Ledoq, a dapper and resourceful "brightly wrapped little package" of a detective who takes his food, drink, and apparel very seriously and manages to convey much culinary lore, including recipes, to an unappreciative Beaumont while the two of them pass from one tight spot to another in dizzying succession.

Along the way we are introduced to a host of contemporary characters, including the American expatriates Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. Hemingway provides some hilarious low comedy as he lurches in and out of the story, blithely knocking down furniture, objects d'art, wine glasses, and the occasional bystander as he flashes his famous grin - marred, unfortunately, by a piece of coq au vin lodged between his front teeth. Stein is a mountain of a woman with an ego beyond comprehension, monumentally self-satisfied and yet sensible, observant and kind.

Ledoq sums up the story quite nicely: "Ratiocination, fisticuffs, nighttime dashes through the sewers of Paris. All very stirring. Deaths aside, I mean. And also, along the way, we have shared a decent meal or two. Who could ask for more?"

St Petersburg (FL) Times, August 9, 1998
Jean Heller

If you are in the market for an intelligent, amusing, marvelously written mystery to round out your summer reading, you could find it right here in your back yard. Walter Satterthwait, a resident of Indian Rocks Beach and a veteran mystery writer, recreates France in 1923, Paris in particular, as the setting for Masquerade.

As the story opens, dilettante Richard Forsythe has been found shot to death inside a locked room with one of his many mistresses, Sabine von Stuben. It is obvious to police that it is a murder/suicide. The woman was shot first, Forsythe tow hours later - both with Forsythe's gun, which is found in his hand. But his mother doesn't believe it and hires two Pinkertons to investigate, a man, Phil Beaumont, to work openly, and a woman, Jane Turner, to work undercover in the Forsyth family as a nanny.

Beaumont is ably assisted by a dapper little Frenchman, Henri Ledoq, to whom France is little beyond its cuisine, which he knows all to well (don't read the book when you are hungry). Ledoq also knows and is known to every expatriate artist in the country in those days: Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Alice Toklas, James Joyce and others, some of whom become key characters in the book - almost toward the end, to distraction.

Jane works inside the family of Richard Forsythe's uncle to gather information on the dead man, and her progress is chronicled in lengthy and ever-more-amusing letters to a friend we know only as Evangeline. We don't meet Jane in the flesh until very late in the story.

Beaumont and Ledoq, meanwhile, interview as many as they can of Forsythe's friends, associates and relatives - including his coke-head wife, who was perfectly happy with Richard's affairs because they left her plenty of room for her own. They run into corrupt police who eventually turn murderous, tough guys in a seedy bar who chase them into the excrement-filled sewers, an eccentric couple enjoying a floating repast in those same reeking tunnels, and Hemingway.

Ah, Ernest. Could he have been in real life, so clumsy and oblivious.

Beaumont and Ledoq eventually become convinced that the Forsythe/von Stuben deaths were murder, but their lives become a series of chases through a variety of cities, and they must concentrate on staying alive long enough to prove it.

Of course, part of the fun is trying to guess the answers to the who, the how and the why of two murders inside a locked room (thank you, Edgar Allen Poe). The how and the why I didn't learn until the end, and both added up to solid storytelling. Alas (I'm beginning to talk like the characters), I guessed the who about two-thirds of the way through, and it was disappointing. I would tell you why, but it would give too much away. A book which held together so well I didn't want it end let me down at the end. However, the letdown was not nearly serious enough to suggest that readers pass on the book.

Masquerade is great good fun. If only it could have been a different killer.

Wall Street Journal, July 17, 1998
Tom Nolan

In Walter Satterthwait's Masquerade, we leave contemporary horrors for Paris in the '20's, where a jaded American expatriate dilettante publisher and his German lover are shot dead in a locked hotel room: double suicide, or a case of murder?

Conducting separate parallel investigations are Pinkerton agents Phil Beaumont and Jane Turner, who narrate the book in counterpointed first-person chapters. Beaumont and Turner met in a previous Satterthwait book, in which they encountered Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini. Here they mingle with comic effect with a brash young Ernest Hemingway and a charmingly egotistical Gertrude Stein. Filled with running ironies and inside gags, Masquerade is a complete delight. As one character says: "Ratiocination, fisticuffs, nighttime dashes through the sewers of Paris...a decent meal or two...Who could ask for more?"

The Herald - Rock Hill, July 19, 1998
Bill Peschel

Paris in the 1920's is the setting for this sequel to Escapade, featuring Pinkerton detective Phil Beaumont and his newly hired coworker Jane Turner.

This is a notch above most historical mysteries for a couple of reasons. Satterthwait does a fine job of recreating Paris in the post World War I era where its devalued franc made the city an attractive haven for American expatriates such as Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway. Second, Satterthwait is a mystery writer who infuses his books with winds and nods to the mystery cognoscenti. Beaumont, named in homage to the Hammett hero, talks lightly in Hammettsque dialog, but never so heavily that the scent of parody becomes evident.

Sattertwait pens a fine portrait of Stein, capturing a bit of the personality that made her a cult figure, while for Hemingway he must have dipped his pen in acid, overdoing his clumsiness, his boorishness and his bullying behavior.

As for the mystery, well, that a mess of scrambled eggs in the same way that Chandler handled The Big Sleep. Beaumont is hired to look into a suicide-murder of a wealthy expat and his mistress, while without him knowing it a first, Turner is assigned to the same case, playing the role of a nanny to a side branch of the family. They alternate chapters in describing their adventures, he speaking directly to the reader, she in witty and observant letters to a girlfriend.

The investigation grows more complex, and sorting it all out seems impossible, and a deus ex machina is called upon to rescue the sleuths. But Satterthwait paints a fine portrait of Paris, setting some tense scenes in its sewers, catacombs, and Beaumont and Turner are attractive detectives to follow.

Library Journal, August 1998, page 139

Pinkerton operatives Phil Beaumont and Jane Turner (Escapade, 1995) search for the truth behind the supposed suicides of a rich American publisher and his German mistress in 1923 Paris. A welcome escape to an exciting time and place.

Booklist, June 1 & 15, 1998, page 1734

This sequel to Escapade (1995) continues the adventures of 1920's Pinkerton agents Phil Beaumont and Jane Turner. This time the sleuths are in Paris to investigate the apparent double suicide of publisher Richard Forsythe and his mistress, Sabine von Stuben. With remarkable finesse and no shortage of wit, Satterthwait re-creates the world of the Lost Generation, complete with appearances by Stein, Picasso, Hemingway, and sundry others. Real-life figures turning up in crime fiction are hardly uncommon these days, but Satterthwait plays it largely for laughs and succeeds admirably. Hemingway is portrayed as a bumbling galoot who keeps barreling into various antiques, while Stein emerges in all her egotistical glory as a wanna-be sleuth. The plot itself - an agreeably busy melange in which Nazi sympathizers play a role - functions mainly as an excuse for Beaumont and Turner to visit various landmarks throughout Paris. With point of view jumping back and forth between Turner's Francophile rhapsodies and Beaumont's American disdain for pretentiousness, Satterthwait offers something for everyone. Frothy escapist fun. - Bill Ott.

Publishers Weekly, May 18, 1998, page 73.
Starred Review

Parallel stories told in the distinct voices of Jane Turner and Phil Beaumont (last seen in Escapade) merge in this witty and beguiling mystery set in 1923 Paris. American expatriate Richard Forsythe, acknowledged dilettante and wastrel, is found dead in his hotel room with his German mistress, Sabine von Stuben. The police have ruled the deaths a double suicide, and the case is officially closed. But Richard's determined mother has hired the Pinkertons to delve into it, and Jane, a British operative who is placed undercover as governess to a different branch of the Forsythe family, gleans invaluable details from Richard's 18-year-old cousin - who is quite smitten with her. Her wry and perceptive observations are penned to a British friend. Phil, a shrewdly observant American, narrates his side of the story in a straight first-person voice. A Pinkerton cop who can work equally well with corrupt Parisian police, smug aristocrats, or his gourmand French counterpart, Phil produces information that definitely suggests that Richard Forsythe was murdered. This book is wonderfully rich in detail and atmosphere, offering riveting scenes in sewers and salons, as well as over-the top cameos by Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. Best of all, when Phil and Jane finally cross paths, they provide some electrifying moments. This is a deftly told mystery, a delightful mix of high society and the demimonde, offers readers a terrific imaginary junket.

Bill Crider
Author of Death by Accident: Sheriff Dan Rhodes.

A couple of weeks ago, Dean James mentioned that he had received an ARC of Walter Satterthwait's new novel, MASQUERADE and then proceeded to review the book.

I was chagrined, not because of the review but because I didn't have a copy of MASQUERADE. However, using a few tricks known only to struggling writers and a few unscrupulous politicians, I managed to obtain an ARC of my very own. Phil Beaumont and Jane Turner, my favorite Pinkerton agents, are back, investigating a suspicious suicide in Paris. A long the way they encounter a number of interesting characters, including a hilarious Ernest Hemingway and an equally amusing Gertrude Stein. Phil ventures into the sewers of Paris (a wonderful scene that could have been improved only by the addition of alligators), and Jane finds herself in the catacombs.

But wait! There's more: a locked room mystery, recipes, sexual tension, humor, gunplay, and suspense aplenty. For faithful DorothyL'ers, the running commentary on James ! Joyce and ULYSSES should be worth the price of the book all by itself. Walter Satterthwait writes so well that after reading one of his books I sometimes think of taking an hatchet to my word processor (don't get your hopes up; I haven't done it yet). MASQUERADE might not be Literature, but it's Entertainment of a very high order.

Bill Crider

Dean James @ Murder by the Book
Author of By a Woman's Hand and Killer Books.

The Fates were kind (in the guise of the author himself, via his publicist at St. Martin's), and I got an advance copy of Walter Satterthwait's newest novel, Masquerade, which is due out in July. This is the sequel to Walter's delightful Escapade, which was set in England in 1921 at an English country house. Masquerade is set in Paris a couple of years later and features Phil Beaumont, the Pinkerton operative, who was the main character in the first book. Also along for the story is Jane Turner, now a Pinkerton herself. Most of the story is told from Beaumont's point of view, but the narrative is interspersed with letters Jane has written, telling her part of the story. Beaumont is investigating the supposed suicide of a rich American dilletante, Richard Forsythe, at the behest of Forsythe's mother, who believes her son was murdered.

The puzzle is well-done, but what I loved about the book was the ambience. Paris in the 1920s sounds like a fascinating place. Reading Masquerade makes me want to know much more about it. Walter does a masterful job, as always, of evoking a time and a place. This book is every bit as wonderful and delightful as Escapade, and I cannot but hope that further adventures of Beaumont and Turner will come at some point. Among the true Paris luminaries of the period who make appearances are Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and Alice Toklas. Other characters pay affectionate (and not-so-affectionate) tribute to literary figures of the time: a character reminiscent of Agatha Christie and one who just might have been Jules Maigret....

Dean James

Masquerade Links

Modernist Paris Links
Literature, Art, Music, and more.
Lonely Planet - Destination Paris
Maps of Paris, a slide show, and travel information.
Tracing Ernest Hemingway's Paris
View of Mont Saint-Michel from the shore
Photo - 532 K.