The Lions of Fifth Avenue

The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis   368 pages

There are two bad things about getting a new Fiona Davis book:  1) I’m probably gonna be up all night ‘cause I can’t put it down and 2) I’m going to have at least a year for her next book.

I have been a big fan of Fiona’s work ever since I read her novel, “The Masterpiece.” I’ve read her other works (and loved them all), except “The Address.”  I was saving that to take on an Alaskan Cruise (which the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted).

Like all her novels, at the core of each is a specific New York City building. In “The Masterpiece,” it is Grand Central Station; in “The Chelsea Girls, it is the Chelsea Hotel, in “The Dollhouse,” it is the Barbizon Hotel for Women, and in “The Address,” it is the Dakota Apartment Building.  In this outing, Fiona concentrates on the newly completed New York Public Library (NYPL). Fiona does a fabulous job of providing readers with just the right amount of architectural detail to make readers feel as if they are experie4ncing it first hand; it never gets boring with too many facts.

 Dueling timelines are also one of Fiona’s trademarks. I adore dueling timelines. In this novel, the period is 1913-14 and 1993. At the heart of this novel is also my favorite topic: books!  In 1913, Jack Lyons, who was the superintendent, and his family lived in a seven-room apartment that was housed inside NYPL. That bit fascinates the heck out of me; I wonder what has happened to that space. In the book, in 1993, it is storage.

Jack lives in the apartment with his wife, Laura, and their two children. Laura feels trapped in her marriage, in a life of taking care of her husband, her children and her house. She wants more out of life. Once she is accepted into the Columbia School of Journalism, Laura gets to lead a new exciting life…one where she hardly recognizes herself. Then Jack become the suspect in the theft of several important literary titles, and Laura ultimately becomes on the leading essayist of the 20th century.

In 1993, Sadie has been named the curator of an upcoming exhibit at NYPL. Important literary documents have disappeared. Vanished. Sadie becomes the primary suspect. She, like Jack, becomes the primary suspect.

Each woman, works within her time period to determine what happened to the valuable books and documents…and who is to blame.  I had the mystery of 1993 figured out near the end, before it could be revealed.  The 1913-14 storyline was a surprise.

I adored “The Lions of Fifth Avenue,”  which receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.