7 h 34 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 34 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if discovering who someone really is only makes it harder to know whether to trust them?
In Red Masquerade, Louis Joseph Vance brings the Lone Wolf’s daughter into a world of concealed identities, criminal schemes, and dangerous loyalties. Disguise shapes the action, and every claim invites doubt. Her challenge is not simply to escape a threat, but to judge what others say about themselves—and about her.
Behind this world stands Michael Lanyard, the gentleman adventurer known as the Lone Wolf. His past as a jewel thief casts a shadow over respectable appearances. Courage and loyalty do not always belong to those who uphold the law, while his reputation reaches beyond his own adventures into the dangers surrounding his daughter.
What you’ll discover
- Trust under pressure Feel the tension between learning a person’s identity and deciding whether their intentions deserve trust.
- Disguises with a purpose Follow action shaped by hidden motives, where appearances can conceal what matters most.
- A thief’s long shadow Discover how Michael Lanyard’s reputation gives his daughter’s story a thread of family danger.
- Loyalty beyond the law Question easy judgments as courage and loyalty complicate the divide between respectability and crime.
- Suspense that keeps moving Enter a criminal adventure driven by movement, uncertainty, and the pull of concealed identities.
Who will love it
You will love this if you enjoy gentleman thieves, masked villains, secret councils and daring rescues in old London. Readers who like a heroine finding her own courage will feel at home.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A collector bids against a prince
- The painting hides a bundle of letters
- Lanyard turns a robbery into a bargain
- A cashier on a high stool watches life pass
- An advertisement sends her running into the night
- A prince in Queen Anne's Gate claims her
- Seven masked men plot a revolution
- Love blooms, then seems to be a lie
- A watched servant, a crystal and a trance
- Masks, names and the heart beneath
Who’s who
- SofiaA clever young cashier in a Soho restaurant who learns she is a princess and wants to find her true father and a life of her own.
- Prince Victor VassilyevskiA pale, cold schemer who claims Sofia as his daughter and wants power, revenge and control over her.
- Michael LanyardThe gentleman thief called the Lone Wolf, whose rash kindness at an auction makes him Victor's lifelong enemy.
- Roger KarslakeA polished, boyish secretary who rescues Sofia from the café and wins her heart while keeping secrets of his own.
- Shaik TsinThe soft-footed Chinese major-domo who runs Victor's household and serves his master's most ruthless orders.
- Sybil WaringA fashionable widow who becomes Sofia's chaperone and guide into London society, and who says she loved Sofia's mother.
- Mama ThérèseThe greedy restaurant owner who raises Sofia as a drudge while pocketing the money paid for her care.
- SturmA fanatical German chemist who works for Victor and stares at Sofia with insolent mockery.
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- Large print hardcover
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Die rote Maskerade
by Louis Joseph Vance · 1921
A café cashier named Sofia reads an advert for a stranger's lost daughter and walks out into a London of masks.
Medium level5–10 hours to readDeutsch
Excellent
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In short
What would you pay for a painting you suspect is a fake? Michael Lanyard pays twenty thousand one hundred guineas, on impulse, because a cruel man wants the canvas and a lovely woman cannot afford it.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A collector bids against a prince
The book opens in London in 1900, on a wet afternoon in an auction room on King Street. Michael Lanyard leans against a wall with a catalogue. He is young, rich and admired as a collector, and behind that polish he is a thief who feels no more guilt than indigestion.
He notices a pale man in the front row whose face he can describe with one word, evil. Two women come in. One is a golden-haired Russian in sable, Princess Sofia Vassilyevski, separated from her husband. The pale man is that husband, Prince Victor, and he stares at her with pure hatred.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 15 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1921
- Language
- Deutsch
- Reading time
- 4 h 55 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Vance, Louis Joseph. Red Masquerade. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/red-masquerade.
Vance, L. J. (2026). Red masquerade. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/red-masquerade (Original work published 1921)
Vance, Louis Joseph. Red Masquerade. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/red-masquerade.
@book{vance2026red,
author = {Vance, Louis Joseph},
title = {Red Masquerade},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/red-masquerade},
note = {First published 1921}
}
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What is Red Masquerade about?
It follows Sofia, a Soho cashier who learns she is the daughter of a notorious thief and is taken into the house of a prince who claims to be her father. Disguise, hidden letters and a revolution plot drive the story.
Who is the Lone Wolf in Red Masquerade?
The Lone Wolf is the nickname of Michael Lanyard, a gentleman thief and art collector in the first part of the book. He appears across Vance's series, and in this novel the name is used by his enemies as well.
Is Red Masquerade a true story?
No. It is a work of fiction published in 1921, an adventure thriller set in London, with imagined villains, secret councils and a fantastical gas plot. It reflects the fears about revolution in the years after the war.
The author
Louis Joseph Vance
1879–1933 · American novelist
Louis Joseph Vance was an American writer born in New York City in 1879. He wrote novels and short stories. The Lone Wolf appeared in 1914, and its central character returned in later novels. His books include Red Masquerade and Alias the Lone Wolf. He died in New York City in 1933.
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