Kathleen came up with the title by thinking of the Verdi opera Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball) because her book contained a masquerade at Vauxhall Gardens and because of the main character’s real-life disguise in her previous book, Captain Easterday’s Bargain.
Explaining where the story inspiration came from, Kathleen said, “The title character was meant to be only a minor character in my previous novel, Captain Easterday’s Bargain, but I found him so fascinating that I had to tell his story and fix his life, with the concept of reconciling an unhappy past with one’s present life.”
A Masked Earl takes place in England (London and Kent) in 1741 with a population of about 700,000 in the mid-18th century. “London is grimy and smelly,” Kathleen said. “Soot from the coal used for heating, cooking, and manufacturing, and from the dust from unpaved roads and alleys are everywhere. Sanitation is…rudimentary. Mansions are sometimes only a street or two distant from ramshackle Elizabethan houses or those built quickly (and badly; sometimes they collapse) immediately after the Great Fire in 1666. In spite of its size, open spaces are still nearby—London and Westminster are rather compact, and urban areas don’t transition as gradually through suburbs as our cities do. Sometimes all that separates a closely built area from empty ground or the actual countryside is a road. And London is dotted with large market gardens and glass houses (greenhouses) and open areas like Lincoln’s Inn Fields.”
Kathleen further explained why she chose this setting for A Masked Earl. “In the mid-18th century, London was a major center of commerce and intellectual life. Merchant ships brought cargoes from all over the world to the London docks. London fizzed with intellectuals like Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Sir Hans Sloane, whose collection formed the basis for the British Museum, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who introduced the Turkish method of smallpox inoculation into England, Capability Brown, the landscape architect, William Hogarth, Henry Fielding, author, magistrate, and creator of the Bow Street Runners, and Sir John Fielding (Henry Fielding’s blind half-brother), magistrate and police reformer. George Frideric Handel lived and composed his most of his works in London, including The Messiah, Water Music, and Music for the Royal Fireworks. The streets of London were better illuminated at night than those of any city in Europe, with thousands of oil-burning street lights. Later in the century, Samuel Johnson claimed, The happiness of London is not to be conceived but by those who have been in it. I will venture to say, there is more learning and science within the circumference of ten miles from where we now sit, than in all the rest of the world.”
In A Masked Earl we’ll meet the heroine, Aurelia Kennet who is a disgraced daughter of a viscount. “She has lived at her family’s manor in Kent since an obsessed suitor destroyed her reputation, and she refused to marry either him or another suitor,” Kathleen said. “She is resigned to a quiet existence and spinsterhood. Her outstanding characteristic is her habit of observation and deduction.”
We’ll also meet the hero, John Cornell, heir to the late Earl of Barlyon, who has prospered on the edges of London’s criminal class since he ran away from home at the age of thirteen. “He would not go back except to save his mother and sister from losing their home if the title passed to the distant cousin who is the next heir after himself,” Kathleen added. “On arriving, he is surprised to find someone else claiming to be John Cornell.”
“Aurelia, who has been drifting since the scandal, finds herself intrigued first by the challenge of determining which man is the earl’s heir, and then charmed by one of them. John Cornell, having taken the measure of the impostor, is determined to leave behind his discreditable past and do his duty to the earldom. He finds he wishes to rehabilitate the mystifying Aurelia’s reputation, as well.”
In the course of the investigation, we’ll also be introduced to a number of John Cornell’s childhood friends, as well as his mother, his sister, the false claimant, and Aurelia, who are snowed in together at a house party. “They all play a part in solving the mystery,” Kathleen said. “And there is a worse threat than the impostor. One of Aurelia’s former suitors, Robert Sedgewick, now Marquess of Furness, is resuming his courtship after eight years. He once met John Cornell in London, when both were engaged in nefarious business, and he has an agenda regarding Aurelia.”
A Masked Earl is a Georgian period historical romance. “There’s no sex,” Kathleen added. “Though I wouldn’t call it sweet, a term which always makes me think of endless fields of clover and bunnies, and there are some humorous elements. I’m not much for “message” fiction, but if readers wish to conclude that the past does not have to define one’s present and future, I won’t object.”
A Masked Earl is not part of a series, but several characters have been carried over from Kathleen’s previous book, Captain Easterday’s Bargain. “John Cornell (a/k/a Barlicorn) was a minor character in it, and Hawkins, alleged former pirate, and Solomon de Toledo, both friends of John Cornell, also appeared in Captain Easterday’s Bargain,” Kathleen said.
To learn more about Kathllen and her book, visit:
https://writing-on-el-camino-real.blogspot.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Masked-Earl-Kathleen-Buckley-ebook/dp/B07WPYYQNR/
Let’s get a closer look at A Masked Earl and its beautiful cover!
Eight years ago, Aurelia sparked a duel and refused both offers of marriage which might have saved her reputation. Ruined, she is resigned to spinsterhood, knowing she will have to leave her family’s home when her brother inherits. He has never forgiven her for the humiliation of the scandal. When, at the request of its solicitor, she helps to determine the true heir to a neighboring estate, one of the claimants presents a challenge to her mind—and heart.
The search for the late Earl of Barlyon’s surviving son rips away John Barlicorn’s life in London’s underworld. If he ignores it, his mother and sister may be cast upon the charity of the next heir, a distant relative. Returning to Barlyon, he faces a rival claimant, the risk of being revealed as a criminal, and the fascinating Aurelia. But how can he marry any lady, given his own discreditable past?
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