The Dollhouse

Starred review from May 9, 2016
Davis’s impeccably structured debut is equal parts mystery, tribute to midcentury New York City, and classic love story. It showcases the intersection of two women’s lives at the famed Barbizon Hotel, whose notable residents included Joan Didion, Grace Kelly, and Sylvia Plath. In the present day, journalist Rose is kicked out of her upscale condo at the former hotel for women after her lover reunites with his wife. While doing research for an article on the grisly 1953 death of Barbizon maid Esme, she stays in the apartment of reclusive octogenarian tenant Darby. Darby, who has been a Barbizon resident for over 50 years, knew Esme and was connected to her demise. Rose’s investigation quickly becomes her obsession and refuge when her father becomes ill, her career implodes, and her hopes for a relationship with her married lover fade. “I need to know... how to start again,” Rose says as she digs to the bottom of the mystery of Esme’s death. Darby and Rose, in alternating chapters, weave intricate threads into twists and turns that ultimately bring them together; the result is good old-fashioned suspense. Through the two characters, Davis juxtaposes the elegance and dark side of a bygone era—its jazz, glamorous models, career-minded women, and nascent heroin market—with the crass, digitally obsessed, and cutthroat media world of today. What crosses the divide is the chance for disappointment and loss to give way to purpose and love. Agent: Stefanie Lieberman, Janklow & Nesbit.

New York City's famed Barbizon Hotel is the scene of two plots, set more than 60 years apart, about women freeing themselves from the expectations of others. This audiobook is an excellent example of how a skillful narrator can improve a relatively pedestrian story by infusing its characters with warmth, distinct and distinctive voices, and just enough drama in their conversations to make the audience feel fully present. Tavia Gilbert's capacity to create and maintain the voices of men and women from multiple cultures--some of whom appear in both plots--thus, at different ages--brings the action to life. When the storylines converge, Gilbert makes us glad we stayed with the contemporary and immature reporter long enough for her to plumb the secrets of the failed secretarial student and the hotel maid whose lives changed forever in 1952. F.M.R.G. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

Starred review from October 31, 2016
Gilbert’s superb audio adaptation of Davis’s debut mystery, set in N.Y.C., at the renowned Barbizon Hotel, formerly a women-only residence to famous luminaries, is a highly skilled performance of this suspenseful love story, whose characters inhabit two timelines. Present-day journalist Rose hits a crisis when her boyfriend, whom she lives with at the Barbizon, now a condo building, gets back with his ex-wife and kicks Rose out. Rose learns that a rent-controlled floor of the Barbizon has elderly women residents from its mid-century heyday, and that one of the women, Darby, was involved in a maid’s death in 1952. With Darby out of town, Rose squats in Darby’s apartment and begins unraveling the mystery of the death of Esme, the maid. Gilbert is brilliant with Esme’s full-throated, lovely Puerto Rican accent. Gilbert has nearly flawless range and control with the many characters, hitting a real high mark with the contrast between Esme’s confident, pushy, and highly emotional big-city character and Darby, a self-conscious innocent from a small town. In Gilbert’s capable hands, the story’s message about courage and self-reliance is loud and clear. A Dutton hardcover.