The Paragon Hotel

F One F

 

NOW

 

New York probably is infested with as savage a horde of cut-throats, rats, treacherous gunmen and racketeers as ever swarmed upon a rich and supine principality.

 

-Stanley Walker, The Night Club Era, 1933

 

U

 

Sitting against the pillows of a Pullman sleeper, bones clacking like the pistons of the metal beast speeding me westward, I wonder if I'm going to die.

 

The walls of my vibrating coffin are polished mahogany, windows spotless, reflecting onyx midnight presently. I've been watching them for several days. When I wasn't switching trains, which was its own jostling hell and doesn't bear repeating.

 

Does Salt Lake City ever bear repeating, really?

 

I don't even suppose I took the fastest route cross-country. So long as I was always moving. I remember fleeing New York, still adrift with the shock. Battling sucking currents of lost love and lost city dragging me under. Changing at Chicago I remember-the hustle, the weight of all that metal, the sheer rank sweat of making the connection. I recall prim forests, sloping hills. Downy wheat tufts, crops we tore through like an iron bomb, and desolate empty skies. Big burgs, shabby shacks, towns undeserving of the word, all blurring into America.

 

But at night it's been the black window, the white alcove curtain, smells of cigarettes and pot roast and cold cream, and the fever slick coating my brow confirming that I'm going to die.

 

I'm in shock, possibly. Despair, certainly.

 

Now it hits me in a crack of panic that I'd prefer death drop by when I'm ninety and not twenty-five, supposing it's all the same to the Harding administration.

 

Panting, I tug at my hair. The sudden flare momentarily douses the fire in other locales. I

Lyndsay Faye is the author of five critically acclaimed books: Jane Steele, which was nominated for an Edgar for Best Novel; Dust and Shadow; The Gods of Gotham; also Edgar-nominated; Seven for a Secret; and The Fatal Flame. Faye, a true New Yorker in the sense she was born elsewhere, lives in New York City.

Utterly winning . . . Faye writes a good puzzle . . . [and she s] a person meant to write, who thinks and jokes and understands by writing. It s a rare gift. New York Times Book Review

More Praise for The Paragon Hotel 

The Paragon Hotel is set a century ago, but its themes of social and cultural upheaval feel sufficiently fresh that you might think twice about calling Lyndsay Faye s sixth novel historical fiction. But calling it terrific not for a minute should you hesitate to do that....The great strength of The Paragon Hotel is Ms. Faye s voice a blend of film noir and screwball comedy....The jauntiness of the prose doesn t hide the fact that Ms. Faye has serious business on her mind. At bottom, The Paragon Hotel is about identity and about family those we re born into and those we create. The Wall Street Journal

"With complex, believable characters and an intricate plot, this is a sprightly, enjoyable read." People

This books succeeds wildly on several levels. First, as a beautiful period piece, slangy and jazzy and bringing 1921 to brilliant life. Second, as a lesson about the racist history of Oregon. . . . And third, as a suspense story. . . . I love so much about this book. Raleigh News and Observer

This historical novel, which carries strong reverberations of present-day social and cultural upheavals, contains a message from a century ago that's useful to our own time: We need to do better at solving things. A riveting multilevel thriller of race, sex, and mob violence that throbs with menace as it hums with wit. Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Faye once again vividly illuminates history with her fiction....remarkably fluid fiction, framed as a love letter and based in fact. Booklist (starred review)

"Faye s smart, stylish and suspenseful tale tackles timeless topics of race and gender." BookPage (starred review)

From the opening scene, this novel had me in its grip. Faye delivers a riveting story filled with