The Magnolia Palace: A Novel Hardcover – Import, 25 January 2022

Repetitive information is presented throughout the book, like it was important to remember???.

Really,really good book. Really enjoyed this book

Me encantó la historia y sobre todo que esté vinculada con la Frick Collection. Amo ese edificio y su historia.

This is a pleasant, diverting story that takes place in the Frick mansion in Manhattan. Two storylines, one in 1919 and the other in 1966, follow two women whose lives are changed when they enter the historic mansion. As the story unfolds, both characters are involved in a murder mystery, romance, and a lost piece of jewelry.In the first story, Lilly is an artist's model with a face recognized throughout New York. After all, she has sat for many famous sculptors, and her face adorns many statues in the city. When she finds herself in the wrong place and time, Lilly is sought by police for a murder she didn't commit. She is considering her options and whether to flee when fate intervenes. She is mistaken for a job applicant for the personal assistant position of Helen Frick, Henry Frick's difficult daughter. This means she would be out of the public eye but still within the city in one of the most fabulous houses in New York. She seizes the opportunity to hide for a few months until she feels the police are no longer looking for her. What she didn't count on was how temperamental Helen could be.Soon her time is absorbed in learning about her young boss's overwhelming duties and eccentricities. She quickly realizes that Helen will do anything to please her father, who doesn't pay much attention to his daughter. Her value to him is to produce a valuable son-in-law. This couldn't be further from Helen's goals. Instead, Helen starts cataloging the massive, valuable collection of Frick artwork. Lilly gets tangled up in a plot to get Helen married but becomes involved with Helen's suitor. Lilly realizes the terrible predicament she is in and how she is risking the wrath of a powerful family by taking Helen's betrothed.Fifty years later, Veronica, a British fashion model, takes a job that sends her to New York to participate in a magazine shoot taking place in the Frick mansion. She gets accidentally locked in the mansion when a blizzard hits the city. Veronica tries to summon help, but it is futile. She wanders the rooms and stumbles on some clues to a treasure hunt that must have taken place in 1919. Veronica follows the clues which direct her to specific pieces of artwork. In her search, she is startled when she runs into another person, an archivist who has also been locked in. Together they follow clues that solve a long-ago mystery, one that began when Lilly worked as Helen Frick's assistant.I was drawn into this story by the title subject, the Frick mansion. The author, Fiona Davis, has woven her fictional characters into an authentic backdrop of the Frick mansion and family. This is a novel that will entertain historical fiction readers, especially those who like to learn about the fabulous old houses of New York. The mystery and romance elements will appeal to readers of these genres, too.

This was a quick read that was enjoyable. I found it interesting that the main character was inspired by a real person. I knew the family who owned the Magnolia Palace were real –The Frick family. Mr. Henry Clay Frick was an industrialist as well as an art patron and eventually, he left his home to the city to make into a museum. Audrey Munson was the woman who inspired the heroine, Lillian, in this story. Audrey was used by many sculptors of that era as a model for many of the statues around the city of New York. Many call her the first super model.The novel begins with Lillian being in the wrong place at the wrong time and she is questioned in the murder of her landlord’s wife. She flees and ends up in a job interview to be the assistant to Mr. Frick’s daughter.The action swings back and forth from the gilded age to the 1960s where we meet a model named Veronica who has come over from England to be part of a photo shoot at the Frick mansion which is now a museum. She meets a young man who is interning at the museum. They accidently get locked into the museum overnight in a snowstorm and blackout.Back in the gilded age, Lillian works for the daughter of the industrialist and tries to help her in her love life as the woman’s father wants her to marry. There’s a lot of interesting psychological undertones in Frick’s son and daughter’s interactions with him as well as each other.Lillian finds herself falling for the young man who has been chosen to be her employer’s fiancé and he falls for her as well. The daughter goes out of town with her family and sets a kind of treasure hunt around the house for her intended husband in order to amuse him while she’s gone. Lillian helps him in the quest and they draw closer together.In the 1960s, Veronica finds the clues for the treasure hunt in the house/museum and she, along with the intern start to follow them while they are stranded in the house.The rest of the story continues to move back and forth between the time periods and the two heroines. A murder occurs and the excitement builds in each era. I won’t say much more as I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but it’s a unique and interesting story. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it if you like art, the gilded age, the 1960s, mysteries and a fictionalized look at the past in an exciting way.Issues of racism and prejudice against women with ambition are two of the themes of this story as well as family love and conflict. Overall, I think it’s a good story.