The Lions of Fifth Avenue

May 15, 2020
Returning to her trademark depictions of historic Manhattan buildings, Davis has set her latest in the New York Public Library. The NYPL has a special significance for three generations of the Lyons family, whose surname appears to be a nod to the institution's sentry lions. In 1913, library superintendent Jack Lyons, his wife, Laura, and their two children, Pearl and Harry, inhabit seven rooms on the library's mezzanine. In alternating sections set in 1993, Sadie Donovan, Pearl's daughter, is also a library administrator, curating the Berg Collection of rare books. This collection includes mementos of Laura Lyons, whose reputation as an early feminist essayist is enjoying a resurgence. Shortly before Pearl, who lives with Sadie's brother, Lonnie, dies at 87, she hints at a long-kept secret concerning Tamerlane, a volume of Edgar Allan Poe's poetry that disappeared from the library on Jack Lyons' watch. As it happens, this novel is less a paean to architecture than a tale of two book heists, 80 years apart. On the continuum of crime, pilfering books--even invaluable artifacts like a first edition of Leaves of Grass, a page from a Shakespeare First Folio, the last diary Virginia Woolf kept before her suicide, and that priceless edition of Poe--ranks rather low on the thrill-o-meter. So Davis attempts to inject juicier conflicts. Laura's struggle to get a degree from Columbia's journalism school is doomed to fail thanks to flagrant sexism (though a professor plagiarizes her thesis). Sadie, who's still reeling from a difficult divorce, is a suspect in the book thefts, as was her grandfather, Jack. The tension needle is hardly moved by flat characterizations or improbable plot developments while the writing is strictly functional: long on exposition, short on atmosphere. A story as lively as those stone lions.

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Starred review from May 18, 2020
Davis (The Address) delves into the history of the New York Public Library in this delightful mystery. It’s 1913, and Jack and Laura Lyons have spent the past two years living in an apartment on a mezzanine tucked inside the library, since it opened. Jack is the library’s superintendent, while Laura raises their two children and studies journalism at Columbia. Tension builds when valuable first edition books start disappearing and Jack is the suspected thief. Davis then shifts to 1993, when Laura’s granddaughter Sadie is the library’s rare books curator, and a new wave of thefts begin. As the story transitions between Sadie and Laura, their differences stand out: Sadie is a quirky book lover who’s uneasy around people, while Laura blooms when she meets the revolutionary women of Greenwich Village, who fight for rights in a club called Heterodoxy. Laura’s journalism professor dismisses the club for “trying too hard to be intellectual,” prompting Laura to prove him wrong. Eventually she goes on to become a leading feminist essayist. Davis illuminates the world of special books through keen descriptions of the library and rare book dealers, while leading readers through the twin mysteries of the missing books. The characters and story are stellar, but the real star of the show is the library, which Davis evokes beautifully.

June 1, 2020
The New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street has captivated tourists, scholars, and employees alike for more than a century. For Laura Lyons, the library superintendent's wife, moving into the library's private residence in 1913 was an opportunity for her family to experience one of the most priceless pieces of Manhattan real estate. Eighty years later, Laura's granddaughter Sadie lands a big promotion as curator of the library's highly esteemed Berg Collection of rare books. Tasked with finding pieces to showcase the library's early years for a new exhibit, Sadie jumps at the opportunity to dive into her grandmother's history. But when Sadie's research materials begin to go missing, her career and the reputation of the Berg Collection are in danger. Davis' (The Chelsea Girls, 2019) latest NYC-set historical novel is grounded in researched detail, transporting readers between the 1910s and the 1990s. Bibliophiles and fans of Naomi Wood and Paula McLain will especially enjoy this glimpse inside the history of the institution and the tireless dedication of those who serve it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

June 1, 2020

Imagine a family of four living within the labyrinth of the New York Public Library's main branch. The year is 1913; Laura Lyons's husband, Jack, is the superintendent of the building. He works days for the library and spends his evenings writing the great American novel and hoping to raise their family above subsistence level. Laura enrolls in the new Columbia School of Journalism to stabilize the family with a steady income. This act is life-changing for her, as she begins to explore Greenwich Village bohemia and meets up with a radical, opinionated group of women. Change is afoot in the culture and in their family, but all is shattered when valuable manuscripts begin to disappear from the library. A second, 1993-set story of Sadie Donovan, Laura's granddaughter, a curator at the same library, runs through the book. When famous materials again begin to go missing from an exhibition she is working on, Sadie teams up with an investigator to find the culprit and save her career. VERDICT Davis (The Chelsea Girls) gives readers a mystery and a historical novel all in one absorbing tale. Recommended for large public library fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, 12/16/19.]--Cheryl Bryan, Orleans, MA

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2020

This latest from Davis, who's had four consecutive LibraryReads picks, opens in the early 1900s with the enterprising wife of the NYPL superintendent involved in everything from Greenwich Village's new bohemia to the fight for suffrage. But she's especially worried about book thefts from the library that decades later impact her granddaughter.

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.