Hi, all:
I bring you a new novel by an author I met through Rosie’s book blog, and I am happy to report that she’s become a favourite of mine, and I hope to keep reading her for years to come.
The Orchid Hour by Nancy Bilyeau. Excellent historical fiction set in 1920s New York, with a great protagonist
Featured in Town and Country’s ‘Must-Read Books of Summer 2023’.
There is a certain hour, in the dead of night, when the orchid’s scent can put you under a spell…
‘Historical mystery fans will find this irresistible.’ Publishers Weekly Starred Review
“From the family shops of Little Italy to the bright lights of Dreamland, Nancy Bilyeau takes you on a glittering tour of a bygone New York… ” – Mariah Fredericks, author of The Lindbergh Nanny
Nancy Bilyeau, author of The Blue, returns with a tantalizing novel about one woman caught up in a secret nightclub that one can only reach through a certain florist on a cobblestone street.
New York City, 1923. Zia De Luca’s life is about to be shattered.
Having lost her husband to The Great War, she lives with her in-laws in Little Italy and works at the public library.
But when a quiet poetry-lover is murdered outside the library, the police investigation focuses on Zia.
After a second tragedy strikes even closer to home, Zia learns that both crimes are connected to a new speakeasy in Greenwich Village called The Orchid Hour.
When the police investigation stalls, Zia decides to find her own answers. A cousin with whom she has a special bond serves as a guide to the shadow realm of The Orchid Hour, a world filled with enticements Zia has shunned up to now.
She must contend with a group of players determined to find wealth and power in New York on their own terms. In this heady atmosphere, Zia begins to wonder if she too could rewrite her life’s rules.
As she’s pulled in deeper and deeper, will Zia be able to bring the killers to justice before they learn her secret?
https://www.amazon.com/ORCHID-unputdownable-Manhattan-murder-mystery-ebook/dp/B0BVBB7M5K/
About the author:
If you tell Nancy Bilyeau that reading one of her historical novels of suspense is like strapping yourself into a time machine, you’ll make her a happy woman. She loves crafting immersive historical stories, whether it’s Jazz Age New York City in “The Orchid Hour,” the 18th-century European porcelain workshops and art galleries in “The Blue” or “The Fugitive Colours,” or Henry VIII’s tumultuous England in “The Crown,” “The Chalice,” and “The Tapestry.”
A magazine editor who has worked on the staffs of “Rolling Stone” and “Entertainment Weekly,” Nancy drew on her journalism experience to research “The Orchid Hour,” which includes real-life figures such as Lucky Luciano, Arnold Rothstein, and Lous Buchalter. While working as deputy editor of the nonprofit Center on Media, Crime and Justice in New York City, Nancy covered organized crime as well as cybercrime and terrorism.
For her Genevieve Planche novels–“The Blue” and “The Fugitive Colours”–she drew on her own heritage to create her Huguenot heroine. Nancy is a direct descendant of Pierre Billiou, a French Huguenot who immigrated to what was then New Amsterdam (later New York City) in 1661. Nancy’s ancestor, Isaac, was born on the boat crossing the Atlantic. Pierre’s stone house still stands and is the third oldest house in New York State.
Nancy’s mind is always in past centuries but she currently lives with her husband and two children in upstate New York. Her quest to cook the perfectly flavored cassoulet is ongoing.
My review:
I thank NetGalley and Lume Books for providing me an ARC copy of this book, which I freely chose to review.
I discovered Nancy Bilyeau through Rosie’s Book Review Team (my thanks to Rosie and all the team members) a while back, and I’ve been an avid follower of her since, although I am aware I have plenty of back reading to catch up with, as this is only the third of her novels I read. And yes, it is as good as the other two.
Bilyeau is one of those authors who seems to have been born for a particular genre, historical fiction, and she has an uncanny ability to bring to life past eras, places, and people, and to seamlessly create a rich historical tapestry by combining real historical figures with fictional characters, at the same time pulling the readers into intriguing stories and making them inhabit a world and a time they might know little about.
In this case, the author introduces us to the New York of the early 1920s, the prohibition era, with Zia (Audenzia), a young Italian emigrant who arrived in New York with her family when she was very young, now a widow (her husband died during WWI), with a young son, and living in her in-laws apartment in Little Italy. She works in a public library, although things are about to change there (funding cuts and eugenics play a part in that), and her life gets thrown into turmoil due to events that, at least initially, seem to have little to do with her. Being now an orphan and a widow, from Sicily, (her late husband was from Naples and there are issues at play there), means that she follows pretty strict rules as to what she should do, what is proper, and how much freedom she is actually allowed. When two violent events strike —the second one directly affecting her life and her circumstances—, she decides to take things into her own hands, and her life is changed forever. This is also an adult coming-of-age story, as Zia has to make many changes to her life to follow her plan, which has a greater impact on her way of seeing things than she’d ever expected. The myth of Persephone and Hades is mentioned several times in the novel, and it seems particularly fitting to Zia’s life and to the novel as a whole. (And yes, although I remembered the story vaguely, I did check it in more detail as I was reading the novel, and it is fascinating).
The story is narrated mostly from Zia’s point of view, in the first person, and that helps readers feel closer to her, empathise with her, and understand how she feels, her doubts, her uncertainty, her hopes, and her strength and determination. She is very loyal to her family, and to her family duties, but the weight of tradition weighs heavy on her, and she soon realises that some members of her family have taken a dangerous path, although that doesn’t stop her from feeling quite close to them (him, in this case). We meet many other characters, some entirely fictional, while others are well-known historical figures, many from the underworld, and the author provides us with some other perspectives, as some of the chapters are narrated, in the third-person, from two other characters’ point of view: Frank, an NYPD detective whose family circumstances are quite difficult (his wife is in hospital, in a coma, suffering from a disease doctors seem to know little about, most probably encephalitis, and people who are familiar with the movie Awakenings or the book by Dr Oliver Sachs will get an idea of what it must have been like for the illness sufferers and their relatives), and Louis, a hoodlum looking for a way into the criminal organisations running things in New York (based on the real Louis Buchalter). This introduces us to other spheres and helps us understand the complexity of New York society at the time and the forces that influenced people, pulling them sometimes in directions they didn’t want to go (but not all were that reluctant either).
There is an initial chapter set in the 1960s, in New York. We meet an older Zia, and a new investigation into events from the past makes her remember what happened. We retrieved her in the 1960s at the end, and the trip down memory lane is one full of excitement, threats, revenge, crime, eugenics, prejudice, police and political corruption, bootleggers, drugs, but also new fashions, music (Charleston, jazz), the roaring twenties, prohibition, cars, modernity, new roles and social mobility, speakeasies, night-clubs, delicious foods, traditional Italian life, women with careers, the world of cinema, and, orchids. The author does not hammer us with her research, but she creates a vivid canvas where all our senses (even the smell) transport us to New York in the 1920s. She explains what fascinated her about the era in her author’s note, at the end of the book, and it is well worth a read, as she explains who the fictional and real characters are, and includes a reading list for those who might want to find more about the era and many of the topics discussed throughout the book, together with podcasts and TV series. She also mentions the real locations of the story, recommends some museums (and a library) for us to visit, and acknowledges the many people who have helped her create this fascinating world.
I don’t want to spoil the story by going into too much detail, but I particularly enjoyed the transformation Zia goes through, and how she becomes an independent woman, able to make her own decisions and even move out of her in-laws’ home. She also finds love, but she does not become foolishly romantic or lose her sense of self, and she manages to lead a full life despite the odds. I loved her relationship with her relatives, particularly Sal, and her memories of her childhood and her passage to New York. I also enjoyed the information about the orchids (a plant that has always fascinated me), and the opportunity to peer into the lives and psyches of some characters whose alliances and morality were not straightforward. This is not a simple story with a happy ever after for all involved, as many bad things happen during it, but, all things considered, I thought the ending was perfect.
This is a novel I’d recommend to anybody interested in 1920s US history, especially concerning the prohibition era in New York, those who are fascinated by that historical period and the changes taking place in society at the time, and also anybody who appreciates a beautifully written story with a main female character who grows and develops, discovering new things about her surrounding, and especially about herself. She might lose some of her innocence in the process, but there is much to gain as well. Any fans of the author should read it, and for those who haven’t met her yet, this is a great opportunity to do so.
In case you need any further recommendations, these are the author’s words on how and why she became interested in the subject of this novel:
My idea for this historical novel grew from my fascination with Jazz Age New York, a place and time filled with both the exquisite and the ugly. It’s almost as if one can’t exist without the other.
Her novel shows the precarious balance between the two, and how difficult it was not to stray too far into the dark side.
Thanks to NetGalley, Lume Books, and to the author, for this novel, thanks to all of you for following, reading, liking, commenting, and sharing with anybody who might enjoy it. Keep taking care of yourselves, and always keep smiling.
Just Olga 