Authors: Kate Quinn & Janie Chang
Released on Audible 15th February 2024
Category: Historical, Mystery, Based on Fact
San Francisco, 1906. In a city bustling with newly minted millionaires and scheming upstarts, two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano whose career desperately needs rekindling, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress who is determined to escape an arranged marriage. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace.
His patronage offers Gemma and Suling the chance of a lifetime, but their lives are thrown into turmoil when a devastating earthquake rips San Francisco apart and Thornton disappears, leaving behind a mystery reaching further than anyone could have imagined . . . until the Phoenix Crown reappears five years later at a sumptuous Paris costume ball, drawing Gemma and Suling together in one last desperate quest for justice.
In 1906, thirteen days before the devastating earthquake, opera singer Gemma Garland was on her way from New York to San Francisco to meet her best friend and artist, Nellie Doyle who moves around on a whim. Gemma was about to make her debut with the Metropolitan Opera travelling company, even if it was just in the chorus. Also living in San Francisco at the boarding house where Gemma was staying was botanist, Alice Eastwood who was in San Francisco to study the local flora.
Oh, Nell, Gemma thought. What would I do without you? She hadn’t been able to write about all the unpleasantness that sent her fleeing from New York (the shouting and the contemptuous gazes and the shame, no, don’t think about that, not right now) but she could tell Nellie about it once they were face-to-face. Nellie would understand. She was the one person in the world who could be exempted from the general rule that everyone in the end would just let you down.
And yet, when Gemma arrived at the boarding house she found, much to her dismay and disbelief, that Nellie had apparently moved on without a word.
Suling Feng, a resident of Chinatown and a gifted embroiderer, works at a couple of jobs trying to save enough money to leave San Francisco before her uncle can marry her off to a much older man.
The catalyst which brings them all together is Henry Thornton, a self-made railway tycoon who collects Chinese antiquities. His collection includes the legendary Phoenix Crown. He also likes to be considered as a patron of the arts and after hearing Gemma sing he offered his support and influence to further her career. In the normal run of things, Gemma and Suling would probably never have met, much less become fast friends, but Suling’s expertise with embroidery also brought her to Thornton’s attention.
The chapters mark a countdown to the earthquake, which builds tension as lives unravel, a mystery deepens and danger is all around. Eventually the story moves from San Francisco to Versailles and culminates in a very tense and satisfactory ending. The story is rich in detail and I enjoyed the fact the female characters are strong despite the racial prejudice and sexual discrimination of the time.
I wasn’t aware of Janie Chang previously, but the collaboration between the authors worked well. The audio was narrated by Saskia Maarleveld and Katherine Chin, both did an excellent job.
Kate Quinn is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction. A native of southern California, she attended Boston University where she earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Classical Voice. She has written four novels in the Empress of Rome Saga, and two books in the Italian Renaissance, before turning to the 20th century with “The Alice Network”, “The Huntress,” “The Rose Code,” “The Diamond Eye,” and “The Briar Club.” She is also a co-author in several collaborative novels including “The Phoenix Crown” with Janie Chang and “Ribbons of Scarlet” with Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie, Eliza Knight, Sophie Perinot, and Heather Webb. All have been translated into multiple languages. Kate and her husband now live in Maryland with three rescue dogs.
Janie Chang writes historical fiction, inspired by family stories about life in a small Chinese town in the years before the Second World War and tales of ancestors who encountered dragons, ghosts, and immortals. Her novels, THREE SOULS and DRAGON SPRINGS ROAD were nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award. DRAGON SPRINGS ROAD was a Canadian national bestseller. Her third novel THE LIBRARY OF LEGENDS was a Canadian national bestseller and a Book of the Month Club selection. Her latest novel THE PORCELAIN MOON is set in WWI France and brings to readers the forgotten history of the 140,000 Chinese workers sent to the Western Front. THE PHOENIX CROWN, a novel co-authored with Kate Quinn, released in February 2024.
Born in Taiwan, Janie has lived in the Philippines, Iran, Thailand, and New Zealand. She now lives on the Sunshine Coast of beautiful British Columbia, Canada with her husband and Minnie, a rescue cat who thinks the staff could do better.
