The Dollhouse: A Novel

About this book

Rich both in twists and period detail this tale of big-city ambition is impossible to put down.People Fiona Daviss stunning debut novel pulls readers into the lush world of New York Citys glamorous Barbizon Hotel for Women where in the 1950s a generation of aspiring models secretaries and editors lived side by side while attempting to claw their way to fairy-tale success and where a present-day journalist becomes consumed with uncovering a dark secret buried deep within the Barbizons glitzy past. When she arrives at the famed Barbizon Hotel in 1952 secretarial school enrollment in hand Darby McLaughlin is everything her modeling agency hall mates arent: plain self-conscious homesick and utterly convinced she doesnt belonga notion the models do nothing to disabuse. Yet when Darby befriends Esme a Barbizon maid shes introduced to an entirely new side of New York City: seedy downtown jazz clubs where the music is as addictive as the heroin thats used there the startling sounds of bebop and even the possibility of romance. Over half a century later the Barbizons gone condo and most of its long-ago guests are forgotten. But rumors of Darbys involvement in a deadly skirmish with a hotel maid back in 1952 haunt the halls of the building as surely as the melancholy music that floats from the elderly womans rent-controlled apartment. Its a combination too intoxicating for journalist Rose Lewin Darbys upstairs neighbor to resistnot to mention the perfect distraction from her own imploding personal life. Yet as Roses obsession deepens the ethics of her investigation become increasingly murky and neither woman will remain unchanged when the shocking truth is finally revealed.