This book isn't a normal draw for me; however, I wasn't too enthusiastic about any of the other Book of the Month options for this month and my friend (with whom I coordinate our BOTM choices) was really interested in this one. 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. Sheer luck has her obtaining the position as personal secretary to Miss Helen Frick, the youngest daughter of Henry Clay Frick. I was so caught up in this Old Hollywood feel, never before thinking about sculptures revealing their own legacy of people and their past. Mother always said Lillian had marvelous luck, from being plucked from the chorus line to becoming muse to the greatest artists of this century.

When this book was donated to my Little Free Library Shed, I couldn’t help but say yes to wanting to read it. English model Veronica is in New York on a photo shoot in the Frick museum but when she upsets the photographer then gets locked in the museum, alongside a curator, she finds some intriguing clues to a treasure hunt. When she inadvertently witnesses a murder in her apartment building, she flees from the police who think that she is part of a love triangle that led up to murder. I got so curious about the locale that I watched a couple of YouTube videos detailing the Frick Collection. One timeline takes us back to 1919 when Lillian, a model of the female form for sculptors of the time, loses her mother to the Spanish flu and also becomes a person of interest in the death of her landlord's wife.The completed statue, Lukeman explained, would stare down at a reflecting pool, and as she posed, Lillian lost herself in imagining the joy of the couple's love, the sadness of their terrible demise.

Davis adeptly interweaves two compelling story lines to shine a light on another NYC landmark (after novels set in the Chelsea Hotel and the New York Public Library). When she finds herself at the Frick household interviewing for the position of a personal secretary to Helen Frick, she can't believe her luck. The Magnolia Palace, has a dual timeline, both characters are models and find themselves in the Frick mansion and a half a century apart. And here's where Fate steps in and Lillian is mistaken for someone else applying for a private secretary position at the Frick Mansion.With her mother not there to protect her Lillian goes on the run but must find other work to survive. But in those cold, dark days, she'd been unable to leave the apartment other than to fetch the bare necessities. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

she] smoothly combines fact with fiction, and offers beautiful descriptions of the family's art collection.The story of Lillian, Helen and the Frick family is revealed as the mystery of the lost Magnolia Diamond is uncovered. Davis' insider's perspective on the esteemed Frick family gives equal weight to those who kept the family afloat. Since Kitty's death, she'd felt a consistent, gnawing hunger in her gut that would only be satiated with butterscotch candies and lemon meringue pie. The result of the hunt could help settle Veronica financial dilemma and solve two long unsolved crimes. She flees her apartment, the opportunity to become Helen Frick’s secretary lands in her lap, and it gives Lilly a place to stay and time to work out what she’s doing to do?

Truly, when I start a Fiona Davis book, there’s this itch inside me, that’s begging to get to the end, because you have to learn what the connection is with her two timelines. She is alone in the mansion during a snow storm and a total blackout but is able to find her way around this massive cavern of a house with the aid of a candle (which she miraculously finds a match to light it).

Without her mother to smooth out life’s rough edges, Lillian had faltered, wallowing in her sadness in a way that Kitty would never have tolerated, which only made her sadder. But soon Kitty is taken too soon during the outbreak of the Spanish Flu and Lillian, known professionally as Angelica, is on her own with just pocket change after the funeral. The interesting mystery thread started a bit late in the narrative for my taste, so I can only express my disappointment in the early pacing. Fiona Davis walks the historical fiction tightrope with grace and elan, in this case bringing the Frick family to life, with all their demons and flaws, as well as the muse behind so many of Manhattan's most iconic statues. Lillian would have preferred a duplex at the recently constructed Hotel des Artistes building, with its high ceilings and gothic splendor, but Kitty had dismissed it as too expensive.