The Magnolia Palace

 “The Magnolia Palace” by Fiona Davis    352 pages 

One of the things that I like about Fiona Davis’s novels is that she uses setting as character. If you haven’t read any of her books and don’t know what that means, think of Tara in “Gone With the Wind.”  Tara is as much a character in the book (and movie) as Scarlett and Rhett. In Davis’s books, she writes about famous buildings in the New York City. In her other books, she has written about Grand Central Station, The Dakota (the apartment building where John and Yoko lived), the Barbizon Hotel, the Chelsea Hotel and the New York City Public Library.  Davis sets this novel in the Henry Clay Frick Mansion (currently closed for renovation, but the massive Renaissance to the twentieth-century  art collection is still available for viewing at Frick Madison).  

As in her other books, Davis wrap a historical mystery in dueling timelines. This story is set in 1919 and 1961. 

In 1919, Lillian Carter (based on the real-life artists’ model Audrey Munson) must support herself after her mother dies in the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. She becomes renown as “Angelica,” a model, often posing nude, or nearly nude. Statues of Lillian’s classical image dot Manhattan landmarks. Behind on her rent, Lilly tries to sneak out of the apartment she shared with her mother, leaving all her belonging behind. On her way out, she becomes entangled, albeit minimally, in a murder. Still she manages to sneak away and spends a few days on the streets. She winds up at the Frick Mansion, inadvertently interviewing for the position of private secretary to Frick’s daughter, Helen. 

In 1966, Veronica Weber arrives from England for a photo shoot at the Frick Mansion. She manages to do everything wrong and is fired from the set. Humiliated, she retreats to a part of the Mansion and gets lost. When she decides to leave, she learns that the house is empty except her, and she is trapped.  She settles down to wait out the night, but a snowstorm creates a blackout, leaving her stranded in the dark, heatless mansion for gosh who know how long. 

Veronica explores the best she can, even the pipe organ room, which house forty-seven hundred pipes. There she finds some papers stuck between the pipes that send her on a scavenger hunt. Soon Veronica learns that she is not alone in the mansion, but the intern, Joshua, had fallen asleep in the basement and was also stranded for the duration. Together they manage to make life bearable until the storm abates. 

As always, Davis vacillates between the two time periods with ease. She knows instinctively when to end a section that leaves readers wanting more, only to be wrapped up in the other time period, causing readers to stay up way past their bedtimes. Based on the buzz I’ve heard about this book, Davis did not disappoint; she certainly didn’t this reader. The only problem that comes from this novel is that I have to wait about another year before a new novel is available. I wonder what she’ll write about next.  I can’t wait!  “The Magnolia Palace” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.