Magnolia Palace, The: A Novel

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Davis smoothly combines fact with fiction, and offers beautiful descriptions of the family’s art collection.

Once again, using her trademark brilliance, Fiona Davis transports her readers into a mysterious past lurking beneath the surface of our modern day world. It is her figure that was the muse for all the statues mentioned in this story and hundreds of others. Rossi's bulging black eyes were punctuated by heavy brows, but any hint of menace was tempered by an unfortunately high-pitched voice. 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.Its permanent collection features Old Master paintings and European fine and decorative arts, including works by Bellini, Fragonard, Goya, Rembrandt, Turner, Velázquez, Vermeer, and many others. She needs to get away and when she does she finds work as a secretary for the infamous Frick mansion. She chances upon a series of hidden messages that will lead her on a hunt that could finally reveal the truth behind a decades-old murder in the infamous Frick family.

I appreciated Davis’s spotlight on the two women, on how difficult it is for women to survive in New York.Veronica encounters these hidden papers and with Joshua, the archivist's, help, they realize the importance of them.