Best-Selling Author Fiona Davis Greets Fans at Scarsdale Library

Dara Gruenberg, Fiona Davis And Beth BermelIt was a night to remember at Scarsdale Library. First because the pandemic was finally behind us, permitting an unmasked in person event. Second, because Scarsdale’s dazzling library was completed and the newly modernized Scott Room was available to host a larger audience and last, because the Friends of Scarsdale Library had invited a best-selling author and the community was finally able to enjoy an event that had long been envisioned.

On Thursday October 20, the Friends of Scarsdale Library welcomed Fiona Davis, author of six novels, all mysteries sited in historic buildings. Bringing the evening closer to home, the event had been arranged in conjunction with Davis’ agent Stefanie Lieberman who happens to live here in Scarsdale.

Dara Gruenberg, President of the Friends of Scarsdale Library introduced the event and noted that the Friends sponsor the library’s museum pass program that allows card holders to visit museums for free. This benefit was highlighted as the book, Magnolia Palace, was set at the Frick Museum.

Library Director Beth Bermel said, “I am so happy to have an event of this size at the library, the largest since the opening. Bermel explained that Davis is the author of six books that occur in NYC buildings, including The Lions of Fifth Avenue, about the NY Public Library.

How did Davis come up with this unique genre of historical mysteries involving landmark buildings? Davis explained that her parents are British and that when she was young they visited castles and let her run around the buildings and the grounds. She said, “I love to explore the ghosts of times past.”Davis signed books after the event.

Her books have a common structure, combining a story from the past and a parallel story from modern times. She said, “A couple of timelines and an element of mystery drive the book forward.” About Magnolia Palace she said, “I have always loved the Frick. It’s many New Yorkers favorite museum. It’s a small, contained house and when you go it feels like the Frick family just went out to dinner.”

How did she devise this formula? She said that her first book was about the Dakota. At the time, Lauren Bacall’s apartment in this historic apartment building was on the market and she toured the apartment with a real estate agent and tried to remember every detail.”

To research Magnolia Palace she asked for a tour of the Frick where she received a “warm welcome.” She noticed that the stately 1914 mansion was “set back from Fifth Avenue, with beautiful magnolia trees in the front.” Though only the first floor is open to the public she was able to visit the basement and saw the bowling alley, which figures prominently in the book, as well as the maid’s rooms on the top floor.

She interviewed people, dove into Frick digital archives and uncovered a party guest list and menu from 1917 along with a list of the salaries of the 27 servants who manned the house. For each book, “she finds the hidden story that is tucked beneath.”

Davis came to novel writing later in life. She originally came to New York to pursue a careers in modeling and then attended Columbia Journalism School and worked in journalism for years. She wrote her first book when she was in her late forties and since them has been researching and writing at a steady clip, churning out a new book every year and a half. It usually takes her four months to do the research, followed by the development of two timelines which she weaves together to form her story.

Up next is “The Spectacular,” the story of an aspiring Rockette, set in the 1950’s.

Sure to be as readable, compelling, enlightening and enjoyable as her prior six books, we’ll be looking for it at the Scarsdale Library.

Thanks to the Friends of Scarsdale Library and Library Director Elizabeth Bermel for a first-rate event in our community gem.