The Magnolia Palace
An Instant New York Times Bestseller • Goodreads Choice Award Nominee
Book of the Month Pick • Apple Books Best Books of January
January LibraryReads Hall of Fame
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Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue, returns with a tantalizing novel about the secrets, betrayal, and murder within one of New York City’s most impressive Gilded Age mansions.
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.
PRAISE
“Davis returns with the captivating story of a missing diamond and the history of New York’s Henry Clay Frick House, before and after it became a museum ... Davis smoothly combines fact with fiction, and offers beautiful descriptions of the family’s art collection. The colliding narratives and comprehensive descriptions of the historic mansion make for Davis’s best work to date.”
“Fiona Davis is at the top of her game in this intriguing, high-stakes novel about an iconic New York City landmark, the Frick mansion, and two women, fifty years apart, whose stories intersect within it. A family saga and historical thriller in one, The Magnolia Palace is a fast-paced, immersive delight.”
“Davis embellishes the real lives of the Frick family and Audrey Munson, a sculptors’ muse, in a tale that will thrill fans of Anna Pitoniak and Karen Harper. She also jumps skillfully between the Roaring Twenties and the Swinging Sixties as another model explores the Frick Collection decades later.”
“With The Magnolia Palace, Davis turns her brilliant storytelling to the Frick mansion, focusing on the strong women who made the Frick a New York icon—some on canvas, others scions of the famous family. It’s historical fiction at its best, marked by the complexity of female friendship, the glamour of the art world, and having the moxie to reinvent yourself.”
“I savor every glorious new Fiona Davis novel and The Magnolia Palace has it all—two intriguing heroines, two fabulous time periods to get swept up in, and a delicious mystery that keeps you on tenterhooks. I loved every minute of it!”
“Combining a mansion turned museum, a missing diamond, a mystery, and the lives of two young women separated by half a century, Fiona Davis stirs up a beguiling story that unfolds like a clever game of Clue. Suspicions abound, and an iconic New York City landmark stands poised to reveal a page-turning tale of wealth, family dynamics, and long-held secrets.”
“The magic of Fiona Davis is the tenderness with which she crafts her settings, so that they bloom into characters themselves. We come to know them. We come to love them. And they help us to understand our place in time. The Magnolia Palace is a love letter to art and history. An intriguing, beautiful read.”
“The pages breeze by as potential romances develop (maybe not the ones you’d expect) and a mystery involving the whereabouts of the Magnolia Diamond unfolds. Deeper issues also undergird both narratives, which confront stereotypes about models and explore how a tragedy can warp family relationships years later. The two narratives dovetail in a satisfying way. Mystery and art lovers should relish this exciting escape into New York’s past.”
“Davis adeptly interweaves two compelling story lines to shine a light on another NYC landmark… This is historical fiction at its best, with well-developed characters, detail, art history, and mystery.”
“Davis builds a whole world that’s rife with secrets and stories. The novel moves at an engaging pace, with questions waiting to be answered at each turn. Davis knows exactly how to structure a story and how to switch between timelines…”
“Davis skillfully weaves these undercurrents into her parallel stories, which coalesce in a suspenseful search for a (fictitious) Frick heirloom: the pink Magnolia diamond . . .Artfully meshes the educational with the sensational.”
“Bestselling author Fiona Davis builds upon the secrets of the Frick Collection in a delightful blend of emotion and adventure. . .Davis knows exactly how to structure a story and how to switch between timelines. . .A captivating story whose characters are richly drawn, The Magnolia Palace pays particular attention to those who might go unnoticed: the deaf private secretary, the museum intern, the organ player. We discover their private lives and public exposures, which reveal the daily messiness of human lives, the construction of the self and the truths we try so hard to hide.”
“Once again, using her trademark brilliance, Fiona Davis transports her readers into a mysterious past lurking beneath the surface of our modern day world. In The Magnolia Palace, two very different women from two eras enter the Gilded Age realm of famous industrialist and art collector Henry Clay Frick and his imperious daughter Helen and become part of a thrilling mystery centered on the Frick mansion that stretches through the decades. Readers will never look at a historic building quite the same way again.”
“Another brilliant historical thriller from Davis, this time set in a Gilded Age mansion in New York City. You will fall in love with Lillian, the penniless young artist’s model surviving the Spanish Flu of 1919, and Veronica, the young mod model of the 1960s, and Davis’s deftly written and beautifully woven feminist storytelling.”
“Rich with family drama, tangled romance, cryptic clues and long-buried secrets, The Magnolia Palace is sure to be loved by Fiona Davis’s devoted and new readers alike. A can’t-miss for anyone who has sauntered through an art museum and found themselves tempted to peek behind a painting or two . . . ”