Karen’s Pick
March 2018
The Address
Fiona Davis
Dutton, August 1, 2017
368 pages
If you are a reader of historical fiction and lover of a good thriller, The Address by Fiona Davis is a book for you. The “address” refers to Manhattan’s famous Upper West Side apartment building, The Dakota. The author’s description of the design and construction of NYC first luxury apartment building offers clear insight into the excesses associated with The Gilded Age. The Dakota is personified by Davis and becomes a character that evokes a wide range of emotional responses. (Note: it helps to be familiar with The Dakota prior to reading).
The Address takes place between two timelines; 1884 just prior to the opening of The Dakota and 1985 during New York City’s period of boom and bust. What links these eras is the story of two women living in the Dakota one hundred years apart. Davis’s fluid style of writing makes the transitions from one period to another effortless.
The story begins in 1884 when English immigrant Sara Smythe is hired as the managerette of the Dakota. Reluctantly Sara becomes romantically involved with the buildings talented architect Theo Camden. Early in the book, the reader learns that Theo is murdered in a crime of passion. Fast forward to 1985, when the reader meets Bailey Camden, a fresh out of recovery interior designer who is a “descendant” of the wealthy Dakota architect. Through a discovery in The Dakota basement of old Camden family trunks, the women’s compelling stories come together to reveal the dark secrets.
Fiona Davis’s well-written The Address is an engrossing mystery that is rich with historical detail and nuanced characters. The continual twists of the plot and the surprise ending keeps the reader compulsively interested.