The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis – 368 pages
ARC from Dutton Publishing and Netgalley for an honest review
Book Blurb:
The Magnolia Palace: Eight months since losing her mother in the Spanish flu outbreak of 1919, twenty-one-year-old Lillian Carter’s life has completely fallen apart. For the past six years, under the moniker Angelica, Lillian was one of the most sought-after artists’ models in New York City, with statues based on her figure gracing landmarks from the Plaza Hotel to the Brooklyn Bridge. But with her mother gone, a grieving Lillian is rudderless and desperate—the work has dried up and a looming scandal has left her entirely without a safe haven. So when she stumbles upon an employment opportunity at the Frick mansion—a building that, ironically, bears her own visage—Lillian jumps at the chance. But the longer she works as a private secretary to the imperious and demanding Helen Frick, the daughter and heiress of industrialist and art patron Henry Clay Frick, the more deeply her life gets intertwined with that of the family—pulling her into a tangled web of romantic trysts, stolen jewels, and family drama that runs so deep, the stakes just may be life or death.
Nearly fifty years later, mod English model Veronica Weber has her own chance to make her career—and with it, earn the money she needs to support her family back home—within the walls of the former Frick residence, now converted into one of New York City’s most impressive museums. But when she—along with a charming intern/budding art curator named Joshua—is dismissed from the Vogue shoot taking place at the Frick Collection, she chances upon a series of hidden messages in the museum: messages that will lead her and Joshua on a hunt that could not only solve Veronica’s financial woes, but could finally reveal the truth behind a decades-old murder in the infamous Frick family.
The Magnolia Palace Review: 4.5 stars
The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis is another gem in which she creates a fictionalized story around an iconic New York City landmark, in this case, The Frick Collection. It is one of the most glorious museums that houses a permanent collection with the likes of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Goya and Bellini.
In using her tell-tale two timeline narrative, Davis puts the reader in place and time in both 1919 and the early 1960s with vivid imagery. The descriptions of New York, the museum and the dress came clearly to life. Her choice to bring the model that graces so many New York fountains and buildings to life was brilliant. I’m ashamed to say that it never occurred to me that those statues were based on a real person. How naïve of me!
The two main protagonists, Lillian from 1919 and Veronica from the 60s were each “stuck” in the Frick mansion for very different reasons. I learned a lot about the Frick’s rich history and adored accompanying the characters on a scavenger hunt through the museum.
In dual timeline novels it’s quite rare that characters from the two different time periods meet up, yet Davis makes it happen beautifully. Threaded through the story are themes of race, romance, fate, grief, mother/daughter relationships, modeling and a murder mystery. This will for sure be a book club favorite and another notch in Davis’s literary belt.
Quotes I liked:
These days, things are different. Women are encouraged to have outside passions, just as men are.”
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