by Lyndsay Faye
First published 2019
Alice "Nobody" James sits bleeding on a cross-country train in 1921, running from a drug deal that went wrong in Prohibition-era Harlem. She carries a bullet wound and the knowledge that dangerous people want her dead. The train takes her to Portland, Oregon, where a black Pullman porter named Max leads her to the Paragon Hotel. The establishment serves as the city's only all-black hotel, and its residents react with terror at seeing a white woman enter their sanctuary. Alice meets the residents: the difficult Dr. Pendleton, the dignified Mavereen, and the captivating nightclub singer Blossom Fontaine. She discovers why they live in constant fear. The Ku Klux Klan has descended on Portland in massive numbers, burning crosses and terrorizing black citizens. When a mixed-race child named Davy Lee disappears from the hotel into the Oregon wilderness, Alice joins her new family of Paragon residents in searching for him. The investigation forces Alice to confront the secrets that drove her from New York while uncovering the mysteries that surround Blossom and the missing boy.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, thriller, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Harlem, Oregon, Portland, The Paragon Hotel
Period: 1921, Prohibition Era
432 pages · Hardcover · G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Content warnings: racism, violence