I really enjoyed Fiona Davis’ novels The Dollhouse and The Address, both of which were dual-timeline stories around historic Manhattan buildings.
The Lions of Fifth Avenue follows the same model. The two stories in two timelines are linked by rare book thefts, both stories about highly valuable, one-of-a-kind historical artifacts that seems to disappear from secure storage at the New York Public Library.
In 1913, Laura Lyons, her husband, and two small children are living in the library, in an apartment for the library’s director. My local public libraries have closed for coronavirus, so I had even more than the usual envy about living in the library. Imagine sheltering in place with all the books! Laura has a complicated life, trying to attend journalism school Columbia, follow her heart, and be a supportive wife and mother at home, so the missing books are one more stress point for her.
In the 1990s, Laura’s granddaughter, Sadie, is a librarian helping put on an exhibition of rare books at the NYPL. Sadie hasn’t mentioned her connection with the Lyons family, but as more and more rare books disappear on Sadie’s watch, and Sadie tries to find how they could be disappearing, she start to wonder about the connection. The books themselves are intriguing, charged artifacts, with secret library identification signs, handwritten author’s notes, and other unique marks over the years.
The two timelines intertwine for a wonderful trip through the familiar landmarks and secret, closed-off areas of New York Public Library.
This is my Review of the Month for the review collection on LovelyAudiobooks.info
Edit 12/2021: Did you like the dual-timeline mystery, seeped in New York history, in Lions of Fifth Avenue? Do you want to read this book again, but set in the Frick this time? Of course you do! Read The Magnolia Palace.
That sounds really interesting! I haven’t read a whole lot of books about book theft, so that would be interesting – I’m going to put it on my reading list.
I mostly read on my Kindle these days, but I save some special books (gifts, favorites, interesting finds, etc.) on my physical shelf. This book made me think more about books as artifacts. I hope you like it too!
[…] when someone asks me what they should read, I’ve been recommending The Lions of Fifth Avenue, for an accessible, historical novel set in the fascinating restricted areas of the New York Public […]
[…] two timelines, and the stories are thematically related before they’re connected, like in Lions of Fifth Avenue, The Lost Apothecary, etc., but not always, and this format never works for me in a suspense novel […]
[…] against male-dominated life, although there aren’t direct parallels. Fans of The Dollhouse, The Lions of Fifth Avenue, and other Fiona Davis novels will enjoy the dual-timeline narrative in The Lost […]