Mask of Night

Wolfe's second novel (after The Schemers ) is a tightly plotted historical romance with an appealing heroine and good background detail. Katie Henslowe is a gifted member of a thespian family, whose talents are obscured by her need to manage the failing troupe that includes her histrionic, opium-smoking brother Edmund. Leaving New York City in 1868, the Populus Felicitas players go to St. Louis to open a theater for Julian Gates, a slick, serpent-like patron and friend of Edmund's. While Julian tempts Katie with propositions that would benefit her career, help protect her frail three-year-old daughter and ensure her family's prosperity, she finds herself drawn to his nemesis, the handsome Matt Dennigan. Hired by an upstanding senator to investigate Gates's misuse of public funds, Dennigan hopes to avenge Gates's destruction of the Dennigans' Texas ranch. While their personal emotional histories threaten to keep Katie and Matt apart, they are united in their opposition to Julian and in the resulting danger. A quote from Coriolanus , a Buddhist icon and a shipment of opium figure in a resolution that also involves presidential hopeful U. S. Grant. Though her characters often display a modern sensibility and use jarringly contemporary language, Wolfe is a skillful storyteller who nicely evokes the impulsive emotions of new love. (Apr.)