A Private Hotel For Gentle Ladies

When Charlotte Heath sees her husband bend to kiss another woman, she drives her carriage out of town and takes refuge in Boston's Beechmont Hotel. It turns out to be an unusual place, particularly for Massachusetts in 1900: By day, the porters carry bags; at night they visit the all-female clientele. Despite the sexual high-jinks, Cooney's story is more elegiac than boisterous, and Cassandra Campbell's well-enunciated reading emphasizes the reflective tone. She has a nicely timbered, well-modulated voice that is a pleasure to hear, yet some listeners may wish for more energy in the delivery. Slightly less enunciation and more liveliness would have lifted a good reading into an excellent one. A.C.S. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

September 5, 2005
Playing out in Boston during the freezing winter of 1900, Cooney's sixth novel (after Gun Ball Hill
) has a steamy premise—a proper young lady winds up at a hotel where female guests are visited at night by handsome young men—but an emotionally distant execution keeps titillation to a minimum. Charlotte Heath, married to the youngest son of an immensely wealthy family, has spent her wedded life living with the clan in their imposing ancestral home. After a debilitating illness of unknown origin keeps her bedridden for almost a year, Charlotte finally leaves her room, only to find her husband on the cusp of an embrace with another woman. Without a second thought, she quits her life entirely and seeks out her only friend, the Heaths' former cook, who works in Boston at "The Beechmont: A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies." It takes a while for Charlotte to realize what's going on at the hotel, where a whole cast of quirky characters hold court—including a handsome young stud who ultimately breaks Charlotte's heart. The narrative moves dreamlike through a web of Charlotte's musings during her unlikely adventure. Cooney's story compels, but continual flashbacks and reminiscences make the narrative feel bumpy and disjointed.