The Address and its Hidden Secrets

Themes of love, loss, and mystery run deep in this Historical Fiction story set in the gilded fortress that is The Dakota.

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When I was in middle school and early high school, I thought I wanted to be an architect. I enjoyed building houses in the Sims and drawing sketches of dream houses for myself and my friends. Even in elementary school my friends and I spent hours turning knick-knacks and shoe boxes into fairy dream houses. Then I realized architecture included math, a subject that has never been my strong suit. Still, architecture fascinates me, the different styles and designs buildings take on. And now, working in downtown Denver, I love the bus ride and walking through the city because there is so much to see; the different types of architecture, both modern and traditional, and what companies have done in restoring older buildings.

One of the most interesting things about old buildings is not only the outward design but the inward stories and secrets kept within the walls. Learning about these stories shines light on an individual’s ancestry, societal dynamics of the time, and gives us a greater understanding of where we have come from, allowing us to make informed decisions about where we are going. So, when my mom left Fiona Davis's The Address on my desk for me to read, I was immediately intrigued.

The novel follows two young women, Sara Smythe and Bailey Camden, living a hundred years apart linked by ancestry and The Dakota. Sara, the head housekeeper at London’s Langham Hotel, comes to America in 1884 and is immediately promoted to “lady managerette.” Bailey, a struggling addict in 1985, is trying to make a decent life for herself in New York as an interior designer.

In 1885 The Dakota was one of the first apartment houses located in the Upper West Side of New York, made famous in 1980 as the site of John Lennon’s death. A bold innovative architect by the name of Theodore Camden spearheads a project creating a tenement where upper middle class families share common space and amenities with other tenants, similar to a working class tenement where dozens of families live together. This allowed those with less money than the upper class to still enjoy the extravagance of calling a mansion their home.

As Sara works closely with Theo, they develop an intimate relationship despite his wife and children living doors down. Sara soon becomes pregnant and finds herself in the same shameful situation her mother did years earlier as an unwed pregnant woman. When she is accused of theft and declared mad she is sent to Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum. Here Davis adds another piece of history, introducing the investigative journalist Nellie Bly, whose reporting caused reformation and further investigations of the asylum.

A hundred years later, the great granddaughter of Theodore Camden, a drug addict trust fund baby named Melinda, hires her “cousin” Bailey to renovate her apartment within The Dakota, eliminating all of its rich history and character. When Bailey finds three chests in the apartment storage belonging to Theodore and Minnie Camden and Sara Smythe, she uncovers century old secrets and finds that nothing is as it seems.

A century apart, two out-of-place women take refuge in a gilded fortress with rich history and tragic secrets that offers both ruin and promise. Davis’s novel takes issues such as class, women's position in society, and what is deemed appropriate and acceptable in both 1885 as well as 1985 and turns it on its head through a story of mystery, romance, and tragedy. Circumstances change in a second, those accused may get a second chance at freedom, and the innocent always have ulterior motives.

The Address is a thrilling read with a little something to keep everyone intrigued. Personally, I preferred the 1885 narrative and romance between Sara and Theodore. Their relationship has higher stakes, includes the mystery of Theo’s death, and the depth and length of their romance progresses throughout the entire book whereas Bailey and Renzo’s relationship lacks the same spark and tension.

Fiona Davis is a master at historical fiction and seamlessly weaves in mystery and twists into her story. The Address is Davis’s second novel, following The Dollhouse, another story featuring two female protagonists, a mysterious murder, and a historical building where the modern story seeks to unravel the mystery and find the truth by examining the past, but that’s a review for another post.

~M