A gun moll with a knack for disappearing flees from Prohibition-era Harlem to Portland’s Paragon Hotel.The year is 1921, and “Nobody” Alice James has just arrived in Oregon with a bullet wound, a lifetime’s experience battling the New York Mafia, and fifty thousand dollars in illicit cash. She befriends Max, a black Pullman porter who reminds her achingly of home and who saves Alice by leading … Alice by leading her to the Paragon Hotel. But her unlikely sanctuary turns out to be an all-black hotel in a Jim Crow city, and its lodgers seem unduly terrified of a white woman on the premises.
As she meets the churlish Dr. Pendleton, the stately Mavereen, and the club chanteuse Blossom Fontaine, she understands their dread. The Ku Klux Klan has arrived in Portland in fearful numbers–burning crosses, electing officials, infiltrating newspapers, and brutalizing blacks. And only Alice and her new Paragon “family” are searching for a missing mulatto child who has mysteriously vanished into the woods. To untangle the web of lies and misdeeds around her, Alice will have to answer for her own past, too.
A richly imagined novel starring two indomitable heroines, The Paragon Hotel at once plumbs the darkest parts of America’s past and the most redemptive facets of humanity. From international-bestselling, multi-award-nominated writer Lyndsay Faye, it’s a masterwork of historical suspense.
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Linda’s Book Obsession Reviews “The Paragon Hotel” by @lyndsay Faye G.P. Putnam’s Sons, January 8, 2019
Lyndsay Faye, author of “The Paragon Hotel” has written an intense, and intriguing historical thriller. The Genres for this Novel are Mystery and Thriller, Fiction, Historical Fiction. The timeline for this story is around 1921 and goes to the past and future when it pertains to the characters or events in the story. The story takes place in Harlem, New York and Portland Oregon. The author describes her colorful characters as complex and complicated.
Alice, or “Nobody” as she is called has grown up in Harlem, and is familiar with the Mafia. When her best friend’s father is killed, Alice and her friend are determined for payback. She becomes ward to another powerful man in the Mafia, and learns many things. Her friend changes, and becomes more violent. Unfortunately, none of these things stops the bullet that hits “Nobody”. Alice “Nobody” is able to get away from New York, leaving people thinking that she is dead. She has learned the cost of betrayal and crime.
On a train, Alice meets, Max a black porter, who manages to help her by bringing her to The Paragon Hotel, an all black hotel in Portland. A doctor sees to her and stitches her up. There seem to be some quirky characters, that have secrets and problems. Instead of the Mafia, Alice notices that there is the Ku Klux Klan and lots of prejudice and bias towards black people. Alice seems to attract attention being the only white person in the hotel and meets some strange people. There is danger and mystery that is surrounding The Paragon Hotel. When a child goes missing, and strange things are going on, Alice realizes why many of the residents live in fear.
I would recommend this novel to those readers who enjoy thrillers with a historical background, and novels that make you think. I received an ARC from NetGalley for my honest review.