Monday, March 2, 2015

The Secret Life of Violet Grant by Beatriz Williams

This was a terrific book - mystery, love, war, science, a dual narrative - a few of my favorite things.  The story switches between Vivian - a vivacious, sassy writer living in NYC 1964 and Violet - a rare female scientist living in Berlin in 1914.  Vivian receives a mysterious suitcase belonging to her long, lost aunt, who allegedly murdered her husband and was never heard from again.  Vivian can't keep herself from a good story and delves deeper into what exactly happened to Violet Grant.  I absolutely LOVED this!!!

From Booklist

Williams, author of the best-selling A Hundred Summers (2013), conjures up another substantive beach read steeped in history and familial intrigue. Separated by 50 years but joined together in spirit and ambition, Vivian Schuyler and Violet Schuyler Grant share equal parts of the narrative flow as the story leapfrogs back and forth between 1964 New York and 1914 Berlin. When Vivian accepts delivery of a musty parcel from the past, she is compelled to unlock the secrets that have shrouded the memory of her Great Aunt Violet. Though the blue-blooded Schuyler family has done its best to bury and ignore Violet’s disgraceful past—she was, after all, determined to pursue a career as a scientist!—the deeper Vivian digs, the more invested she becomes in Violet’s story. Rumor has it that Violet murdered her husband and mentor, Dr. Walter Grant, before mysteriously disappearing with her lover on the eve of WWI. As Vivian closes in on the past, she has a heart-wrenching problem of her own to resolve in the present. Readers will love wallowing in the twists and turns of this irresistibly luxurious tale. --Margaret Flanagan

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