THE DOLLHOUSE

On October 22, the Antemeridians Book Club will meet to discuss The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis.  Fiona Davis is the author of three novels, her most recent work was published in August 2018.

The Dollhouse - This novel takes place in the 1950s at the Barbizon Hotel for Women located in New York City.  The hotel was a place for aspiring young women to live while they pursued careers as models, secretaries, and editors.  Darby McLaughlin is one of the women living at the hotel during this time while she attends secretarial school.  Years later, the Barbizon Hotel is turned into a condo.  Rose Lewin is one of the residents of at the condo as is Darby.  Rose learns about a rumor regarding a deadly incident with a hotel maid and Darby back in the 1950s.  As Rose investigates the story, neither she nor Darby will remain untouched as the truth comes to light.

The Address - This book alternates between the 1880s and 1980s.  After a failed apprenticeship, Sara Smythe has a chance encounter with Theodore Camden, one of the architects of the new apartment house in New York: The Dakota.  This encounter leads Sara to a job as the female manager of the building.  We also meet Bailey Camden, Theodore's granddaughter, as she tries to start over after her stay in rehab.  Bailey's cousin offers to let her oversee the renovation of one of the apartments of the Dakota, the room where Theodore Camden had lived and died after suffering multiple stab wounds.  Eventually, Bailey will discover information that could change everything she thought she knew about her grandfather and the woman who killed him.

The Masterpiece - This work takes place in New York City at the Grand Central Terminal.  In the late 1920s, Clara Darden is teaching at the Grand Central School of Art; she is a talented illustrator, but she lives in a time when the public does not approve of women artists.  However, no one is prepared for the Great Depression and its power to destroy the art scene.  About fifty years later, the terminal has fallen into decline, and it is at the center of a lawsuit.  Should this building be saved and preserved, or torn down?  While this is going on, Virginia Clay takes a job at the information booth and encounters the abandoned art school inside the terminal.  She sets out to find the artist of the unsigned masterpiece found hidden under dust, and finds herself drawn into the battle to save Grand Central and to learn more about Clara Darden.

If you are a fan of Fiona Davis' work, then you may also like one of these novels:

Three-Martini Lunch by Suzanne Rindell
Searching for Grace Kelly by Michael Callahan
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
To Capture What We Cannot Keep by Beatrice Colin
The Stars Are Fire by Anita Shreve
The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman
Tiffany Blues by M.J. Rose

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