The Phoenix Crown (2024) by Kate Quinn & Janie ChangPlease note that spoilers abound! If you plan to read this and don't want hints about the mysteries involved (though not all solutions), then you might want to give this review a miss.
Gemma Garland, a beautiful, silver-voiced opera singer, has come to San Francisco hoping for a fresh start. Migraines interfere with her ability to keep a schedule for the big roles, but she hopes her luck is going to change. Her friend Nellie Doyle, a gifted artist who paints under various names, has invited her to stay with her at her rooming house. Suling Feng, orphaned young and now under her uncle's thumb, works at what was her parents' laundry, but embroiders exquisite pieces in her spare time. When her uncle insists that she must marry a man who is funding the uncle's gambling habit, Suling decides she must find a way to escape. She had been hoping to marry her lover Reggie, but Reggie disappeared after leaving the patronage of Henry Thornton, a wealthy man who has established himself as a supporter of the arts. Suling can't understand why Reggie has abandoned her. Alice Eastwood is a respected botanist and the head of Botany at the California Academy of Sciences. Her life's work has been to record and collect samples of rare plants. She would love to see Thornton's Queen of the Night, a rare flower that blooms only once a year, and, even more, she would love to have a cutting.
When Gemma reaches San Francisco, she finds that Nellie has left with no warning. If any message was sent, it missed her. She becomes acquainted with Miss Eastwood who lives in the same boarding house and settles in while waiting for the rest of the opera company to arrive. She may only be singing in the chorus, but she will be performing with the great Caruso himself. And then her luck seems to change...while practicing at the opera house, she is overheard by Henry Thornton who decides her voice is exquisite enough to merit his patronage. He arranges a society debut performance for her and even buys her a more exalted role in the opera. All goes well until Gemma and Suling meet...
Suling has also received the attention of Thornton. Miss Eastwood, who knows of Suling's skill with a needle, helps the young Chinese girl bargain for an unbelievable sum to restore the embroidery work on Thornton's Dragon Robe, one of his many Chinese acquisitions. She begins coming to Thornton's mansion to work on the restoration and meets Gemma--not for the first time. On Gemma's first day in San Francisco, Suling--garbed as a boy for safety--had carried her luggage to the rooming house. When the women realize that they have met, they talk and then Suling notices a sketch that Gemma has. How on earth did this woman from the East coast get a drawing from Reggie. They realize that "Reggie" and Nellie are one and the same and then the questions begin. What really happened to Reggie/Nellie? And who is responsible. On the night of Gemma's triumphant performance...hours before the earthquake and fires are destined to ravage San Francisco, they find out. And Gemma, Suling, Alice Eastwood and Reggie vow to make Thornton pay.
This is an excellent historical novel with enticing elements of mystery. Quinn & Chang bring San Francisco just before the 1906 earthquake to life with a vibrant story that touches on various levels of society. Each of the main characters shine upon the page and I'm left wanting to hear more about every single one of them. As far as mysteries go, there isn't much of the "whodunnit" element--but it is very much about has he escaped justice and, if not, how will it be served? I appreciated the strong female characters the drive the storyline and the way they took care of themselves during and after the disaster. Great story-telling. ★★★★
One suggestion: given the first and last lines of the novel, I think a more appropriate title would have been Queen of the Night in recognition of the flower whose scent and presence runs throughout the book. Yes, mention of the Phoenix Crown gives the four women the clue that tells them that Thornton is still alive, but the flower is at the center of the story. All four women are given seedlings and keep them alive after they survived the earthquake and fire. All four were present for its once-a-year blooming directly after the disaster. It--even more than the crown--represents Thornton's greed and need to own the exotic. And the fact that the women saved it and became the flower's caretakers represents their ultimate victory over the man.
First line: "A rose by any other name," someone quoted, and Alice Eastwood was hard-pressed not to roll her eyes.
Last line: She saw them all again in a San Francisco boarding house, four women who had come through earthquake and fire, pausing for a moment of peace as a white flower opened and softened the smoky air with its honeyed scent, a fragrance richer, deeper, more intoxicating than any rose or jasmine.
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Deaths = 6 (two drowned; two natural; one stabbed; one shot)
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