The Orion Mask by Greg Herren, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Heath Brandon learned as a teenager that the woman who had raised him was not his birth mother, that she had died when he was just three years old. It didn't matter to him, but what did matter was that his father never talked about his biological family, who lived outside of New Orleans, indeed refused to talk about them. That all changes years later when, after his father had died, a reporter approaches him, saying he's writing a book about his family, and he needs Heath's help, in The Orion Mask, a novel of suspense by Greg Herren.

Heath is reluctant to help out the reporter, but he is curious about this family he's never known — or at least, has no memory of — and reaches out to the Legendres, who invite him to stay at the family mansion, Chambord. Upon arrival, it turns out only his grandfather, Geoffrey, welcomes him. The others, including an aunt and cousin, seem to resent his presence. He tells them he doesn't want anything from them other than information, to learn something about his mother, but someone apparently thinks that the past should remain unexplored, and that Heath is a threat to them.

The Orion Mask has an interesting storyline, which is well-developed, though the very slight paranormal elements associated with the titular mask are more distracting to than supportive of the story. The whodunit element is nicely handled, but it is really Heath's journey in discovering what really happened the night his mother died that is the focal point here. The ending is a bit abrupt; it would have been nice to have a bit more closure for Heath, what his next steps might be, but that's a minor quibble. This is, most likely, a stand-alone novel, however the characters are interesting enough and there are almost certainly more stories that could be told from Heath's perspective, that readers would welcome their return.

Acknowledgment: Bold Strokes Books provided an eARC of The Orion Mask for this review.

Murder in the Irish Channel
Bold Strokes Books (Trade Paperback), December 2011
ISBN-13: 9781602825840; ISBN-10: 160282584X