The Truth in Masquerade

An unusual story of love, loss and the possibility of second chances, The Truth in Masquerade follows Anna Maxwell, struggling to understand the abrupt and unexpected ending of her marriage. Haunted by memories of her husband, Edwyn, and of another man who once loved her, she returns to Oxford to sing the role of the Governess in Benjamin Britten's spine-chilling opera, The Turn of the Screw. Caught up in a world of secrets and uncertainties, Anna has to confront the reasons her marriage unravelled, questioning what was true or illusory, and facing the challenge of a demanding dramatic role; a part that has increasingly painful emotional resonances with her own life. Meanwhile, Edwyn, too, is haunted, by ghosts from his past, and a mystery of identity is revealed that Anna must resolve for both of them, if either is to move on with life.

Carole Strachan grew up in Merthyr Tydfil and studied History at Oxford. In a working life in theatre and music that took her from the Potteries to Manchester, from Cardiff to Llandeilo and back to Oxford, in 2001, she returned to live permanently in South Wales. The Tenor Man is her third novel for Cinnamon Press and like The Truth in Masquerade (2016) and A Song of Thyme and Willow (2019), its characters inhabit the world of classical music, reflecting the twenty-three years Carole spent working in opera.