Review by Booklist Review
When Edith Wharton meets her publisher for tea, she is irritated when David Graham Phillips--a fellow author who proves himself to be radical, self-important, and opinionated--briefly joins them. The next day, David is shot to death outside of Manhattan's Princeton Club. David's sister, convinced that the killer wanted to stop his next "explosive" book from being published, ropes Edith into advocating for its publication. Edith agrees (despite finding the prose "positively bad") and soon finds herself determined to suss out the killer's identity. Mystery writer Fredericks' fictional version of the great writer Edith Wharton--donned with luxurious furs, often accompanied by her yapping Pekingese, and an unapologetic member of society's tiresome upper crust--is an endearingly cantankerous narrator, acting less like an amateur sleuth and more like a writer committed to sniffing out a story. Outwardly, Edith seems sardonic, while scenes with her unwell husband and an unreliable lover reveal the complexities of her loveless marriage. Based on the real murder of Phillips, Fredericks' latest will especially appeal to bibliophiles, who will enjoy reading tidbits about the real-life authors who appear.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Fredericks (The Lindbergh Nanny) presents a vivid portrait 20th--century book publishing and New York City high society in this fascinating if leisurely paced historical standalone featuring House of Mirth author Edith Wharton as a sleuth. It's January 1911, and novelist David Graham Phillips has been shot on his way out of the Princeton Club in New York. Wharton met the man once, at the Belmont Hotel, and found him "arrogant, entitled, belittling," and undeniably handsome. After Phillips's death, his sister urges Wharton to read his soon-to-be-published novel and perhaps champion it upon release. Wharton agrees, and the more she talks to Phillips's sister, the more she becomes convinced he was targeted deliberately. Fredericks is in no hurry to identify a culprit, preferring to pepper her narrative with appearances from Wharton's old friend Henry James, scenes depicting Wharton's disintegrating relationship with her paramour Morton Fullerton, dazzling glimpses of the social lives of the Vanderbilts, and a phone call to Mary Roberts Rhinehart to ask the mystery writer's opinions on how to investigate a murder. Each of those elements adds depth and touches of humor to this entertaining mystery. Readers looking for a bit of history with their suspense will be gripped. (Jan.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A Pulitzer Prize--winning author probes the murder of a colleague. Edith Wharton was no admirer of David Graham Phillips. She found the journalist's dress affected and his opinions overzealous. But the day after their one and only meeting, the muckraker is shot to death near Gramercy Park, and the novelist's curiosity is decidedly piqued. She leaves her invalid husband, Teddy, back at the Belmont in care of his valet, and persuades her lover, Morton Fullerton, to accompany her to Phillips' funeral. After the service, Phillips' sister, Carolyn Frevert, seeks out Wharton and invites her back to the apartment she shared with her brother. Wharton continues to be intrigued by her glimpse into a social occasion without an Astor or Vanderbilt in sight. Frevert, on the other hand, has a more sharply focused mission. She wants Wharton to advocate for her brother's novel, Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise, convincing his publisher to release it in its current form. Wharton finds Lenox as overheated as its author, but the more she reads, the more sympathetic she grows toward Phillips and his circle. She also becomes more sensitive to the dangers an author faces in standing up to the rich and powerful. As her relationship with Teddy becomes more trying, Wharton starts to think about new ways to look at a world where the intrigues of New York's Four Hundred don't always get top billing. Fredericks' elegantly written narrative gives a lively look at an author way ahead of her time. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
