by Fiona Davis
First published 2022
Lillian Carter has lost everything. Her mother died in the 1919 flu pandemic, work as the famous model Angelica has vanished, and scandal threatens her reputation. At twenty-one, she desperately accepts a position as private secretary to Helen Frick at the family's opulent Manhattan mansion. The irony stings: statues modeled on Lillian's body decorate the very building where she now works as a servant. Helen Frick proves demanding and imperious, but Lillian needs the job. Soon she becomes entangled in the Frick family's secrets, romantic affairs, and stolen jewels. Decades later in the 1960s, English model Veronica Weber arrives at the former Frick mansion, now a prestigious museum. When a Vogue photo shoot goes wrong, Veronica and art curator Joshua discover hidden messages throughout the building. Their search for answers could solve Veronica's money troubles and finally reveal the truth about a murder that shattered the Frick family years earlier.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: dual-timeline, found-family, secrets
Setting: Manhattan, Frick Mansion
Period: 1919, 1960s
340 pages · Hardcover · Dutton
Content warnings: death