I’m Jim McKeown, welcome to Likely Stories, a weekly review of fiction, and poetry.
Fiona Davis is the New York Times bestselling author of several novels including one of my favorites, The Chelsea Girls. Her latest effort is The Magnolia Palace. She lives in New York City and is a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School.
“New York City, 1919. “Lilian Carter stood half naked, one arm held up like a ballet dancer, the other hanging lightly down at her side, and calculated how long she could avoid paying rent while her landlord was in jail. If Mister Watkins was released right away, she’d have to avoid him until she pulled together enough money to pay for the one-bedroom apartment she leased in the crumbling, five-story tenement building on Sixty-Fifth Street. Not an easy task when Mister Watkins and his wife lived off the lobby on the first floor. On the bright side, the Watkins couple had shouted each other to pieces in a terrible fight earlier that morning, the screeching carrying for a good forty-five minutes before silence finally reigned. Not long after, as she left for work, Lillian had passed the police as they tramped up the front steps. Maybe they’d keep the tiresome man for a few days this time, a lesson. Not that she felt any sympathy for his bulldog of a wife. Mrs. Watkins had hated Lillian on sight, especially after she discovered what Lillian did for a living” (1). for
Later that day, “A police officer emerged from the Watkins’s’ apartment, leaving the door open behind him. // Another policeman stepped to the door to shut it, but not before Lillian caught sight of a woman’s bloody hand, the fingers gently, almost daintily, curled in. // She backed away, bracing herself on the banister for support, and dashed up the two flights to her landing” (8).
The next day, Lillian receives two letters from a Hollywood producer. “She came out of her stupor after the shock. “She’d accepted the first modeling job she could—one that her mother would never have approved of—and soon after secured the session with Mister Rossi. The two jobs combined gave her a modicum of hope that it was only a matter of time before she’d be able to pay off her back rent. // But now, if Mrs. Watkins was dead and Mister Watkins the murderer, she might be able to live here for free until the entire mess was sorted” (9)..
Fiona Davis has drawn a thrilling murder mystery in The Magnolia Palace. Any fans of hard-core mysteries will find this hair-raising. 5 Stars!
Likely Stories is a production of KWBU. I’m Jim McKeown. Join me again next time for Likely Stories, and happy reading!