Readers who like themes will love the novels of Fiona Davis. Her stories are set in landmark New York buildings. They include: Chelsea Girls (Hotel Chelsea); The Masterpiece (Grand Central Terminal); The Address (Dakota Apartments); The Dollhouse (Barbizon Hotel for Women); and her latest The Lions of Fifth Avenue (Fifth Avenue Branch of the New York Public Library). Lions opens in 1913, with Laura Lyons hurrying into the library, where she lives in an apartment with her husband, Jack, and their two children. Jack is the superintendent of the building, managing boilers to payroll. The next chapter introduces Sadie Donovan in 1993. Sadie works as a rare books librarian in the same building. Both women have aspirations, desires and secrets. Davis weaves a page-turning story with enough red herrings to please cozy mystery fans. Her books reveal the buildings’ histories and the lives of young women in each period. Whodunits abound through all. Reading that will inspire dreams of travel to the Big Apple.
Contributed by Maureen Millea Smith, librarian at the Edina Library and a Minnesota Book Award-winning novelist.
