The Magnolia Palace

The popular author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue, Fiona Davis, makes a triumphant comeback with a seductive book about murder, treachery, and secrets hidden within one of the most magnificent Gilded Age homes in New York City.

Lillian Carter, 21, has lost her mother to the Spanish flu epidemic of 1919, and in the eight months since then, her life has come to an absolute ruin. Lillian was one of the most sought-after models for painters in New York City for the previous six years, going by the name Angelica. Statues of her are a common sight, from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Plaza Hotel. But now that her mother has passed away, a distraught Lillian is helpless and desperate since her job has stopped and a scandal is about to blow out, leaving her completely without a place to stay. Thus, Lillian seizes the chance to work at the Frick mansion—a structure that, strangely, is modeled after her own face. However, the longer she serves as Helen Frick's imperious and demanding private secretary—the daughter and heiress of industrialist and art patron Henry Clay Frick—the more her life becomes entwined with the family's, drawing her into a complex web of romantic trysts, jewel theft, and family drama so deep-rooted that the consequences could be fatal.

Within the walls of the old Frick mansion, which has been transformed into one of New York City's most stunning museums, mod English model Veronica Weber has her own opportunity to launch her career and, with it, earn the money she needs to support her family back home, over fifty years later. But after she and Joshua, a charming intern and aspiring art curator, are fired from the Vogue photo shoot at the Frick Collection, she discovers a string of coded messages hidden throughout the museum. These codes could set her and Joshua on a path that not only solves Veronica's financial problems but also ultimately reveals the truth about a murder that occurred decades ago in the notorious Frick family.