Author: Amy Chua
Published: September 19, 2023 by Minotaur Books
Format: 384 pages, Hardcover
Genre: Historical Mystery
First Sentence: 1930. Inside an alabaster palace one January afternoon in 1930, a six-year-old girl hiding inside a closed armoire felt truly alone for the firs time in her life.
Blurb: In Berkeley, California, in 1944, Homicide Detective Al Sullivan has just left the swanky Claremont Hotel after a drink in the bar when a presidential candidate is assassinated in one of the rooms upstairs. A rich industrialist with enemies among the anarchist factions on the far left, Walter Wilkinson could have been targeted by any number of groups. But strangely, Sullivan’s investigation brings up the specter of another tragedy at the Claremont, ten years the death of seven-year-old Iris Stafford, a member of the Bainbridge family, one of the wealthiest in all of San Francisco. Some say she haunts the Claremont still.
The many threads of the case keep leading Sullivan back to the three remaining Bainbridge heiresses, now Iris’s sister, Isabella, and her cousins Cassie and Nicole. Determined not to let anything distract him from the truth―not the powerful influence of Bainbridges’ grandmother, or the political aspirations of Berkeley’s district attorney, or the interest of China's First Lady Madame Chiang Kai-Shek in his findings―Sullivan follows his investigation to its devastating conclusion.
Chua’s page-turning debut brings to life a historical era rife with turbulent social forces and groundbreaking forensic advances, when race and class defined the very essence of power, sex, and justice, and introduces a fascinating character in Detective Sullivan, a mixed race former Army officer who is still reckoning with his own history.
My Opinion: What sets the stage:
“Q: Mrs. Bainbridge, I’m giving you a chance to help your family. We know one of your three granddaughters is a murderer, I can convict all three as coconspirators, or you can tell me which one did it, and I’ll spare the other two”.
For the first third of the book, I couldn’t understand the flow. The mystery would then suddenly devolve into a history of the bay area, then back to the mystery, then over to family history. It got to the point that I was ready to put the book down since, to me, it felt like Amy Chua (Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) was just testing the waters.
Then something happened. I got the flow; the cousins finally came into their own. The background and history added to the story and made the time and place its own character, becoming just as important as the dead guy on the bed.
What I came to feel, not a full comparison and others might not see it, there were parts that reminded me of John Steinbeck. I know that is a reach, an maybe it is just the bay area, but my brain was linking the two authors.
This is a book that might deserve a second read. Now that I understand the characters, the beginning, and the importance of the California history sections, I think I will appreciate it more.
Blurb: In Berkeley, California, in 1944, Homicide Detective Al Sullivan has just left the swanky Claremont Hotel after a drink in the bar when a presidential candidate is assassinated in one of the rooms upstairs. A rich industrialist with enemies among the anarchist factions on the far left, Walter Wilkinson could have been targeted by any number of groups. But strangely, Sullivan’s investigation brings up the specter of another tragedy at the Claremont, ten years the death of seven-year-old Iris Stafford, a member of the Bainbridge family, one of the wealthiest in all of San Francisco. Some say she haunts the Claremont still.
The many threads of the case keep leading Sullivan back to the three remaining Bainbridge heiresses, now Iris’s sister, Isabella, and her cousins Cassie and Nicole. Determined not to let anything distract him from the truth―not the powerful influence of Bainbridges’ grandmother, or the political aspirations of Berkeley’s district attorney, or the interest of China's First Lady Madame Chiang Kai-Shek in his findings―Sullivan follows his investigation to its devastating conclusion.
Chua’s page-turning debut brings to life a historical era rife with turbulent social forces and groundbreaking forensic advances, when race and class defined the very essence of power, sex, and justice, and introduces a fascinating character in Detective Sullivan, a mixed race former Army officer who is still reckoning with his own history.
My Opinion: What sets the stage:
“Q: Mrs. Bainbridge, I’m giving you a chance to help your family. We know one of your three granddaughters is a murderer, I can convict all three as coconspirators, or you can tell me which one did it, and I’ll spare the other two”.
For the first third of the book, I couldn’t understand the flow. The mystery would then suddenly devolve into a history of the bay area, then back to the mystery, then over to family history. It got to the point that I was ready to put the book down since, to me, it felt like Amy Chua (Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) was just testing the waters.
Then something happened. I got the flow; the cousins finally came into their own. The background and history added to the story and made the time and place its own character, becoming just as important as the dead guy on the bed.
What I came to feel, not a full comparison and others might not see it, there were parts that reminded me of John Steinbeck. I know that is a reach, an maybe it is just the bay area, but my brain was linking the two authors.
This is a book that might deserve a second read. Now that I understand the characters, the beginning, and the importance of the California history sections, I think I will appreciate it more.
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