Books Set in the 1920s
Books Set in the 1920s
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Stepping into the Roaring 1920s: Nostalgia for an Era of Glitz, Glamour, and Innovation
Ah, the 1920s! A decade that sparkles in our collective imagination, the “Roaring Twenties” was a time of jazz-filled nights, opulent fashion, and remarkable social change. Known for its exuberant spirit and daring departure from tradition, this era remains a defining period in history, captivating us with visions of flappers, jazz clubs, and innovative inventions that changed the way we live and work. Let’s take a nostalgic look back at some of the defining features of the 1920s that continue to inspire us today.
1. Jazz and the Harlem Renaissance
The 1920s saw the rise of jazz as a musical powerhouse. Thanks to legends like Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Bessie Smith, jazz spread across the United States, with its rhythm, improvisation, and pure energy drawing people into dance halls and speakeasies. Simultaneously, the Harlem Renaissance was flourishing. This cultural, social, and artistic explosion showcased the talents of African American writers, musicians, and artists, including Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. This era introduced a vital, transformative energy into the arts that still echoes in music, literature, and pop culture today.
2. The Age of Flappers and Fashion
The 1920s were all about breaking boundaries in fashion and personal expression. This decade marked the rise of the “flapper”—young women who defied norms by sporting short bobbed hair, dropped waistlines, and even more daring hemlines that ended above the knee! Flapper fashion, with its beaded dresses, fringe, and daring cuts, signaled a shift toward freedom and independence for women. Coco Chanel emerged as a fashion icon, popularizing relaxed silhouettes, chic suits, and the famous little black dress.
3. Prohibition and the Speakeasy Culture
In 1920, the United States entered Prohibition, banning the production, importation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. Rather than curb the culture of drinking, it led to the rise of secret speakeasies, hidden in basements and behind unmarked doors. People would flock to these hidden establishments for a night of illicit drinking, live jazz, and dancing. The Prohibition era brought an aura of rebellion and excitement, and speakeasy-style bars are still popular today, offering an atmosphere of mystery and indulgence that pays homage to the Roaring Twenties.
4. Hollywood’s Golden Age Begins
Silent film stars like Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, and Rudolph Valentino defined Hollywood’s early glamour, while directors like Cecil B. DeMille produced lavish epics. With the release of the first “talkie,” The Jazz Singer, in 1927, Hollywood entered a new era, bringing sound to the silver screen. This was the decade when going to the movies became a popular pastime, creating stars out of actors and actresses and fostering the idea of “celebrity” as we know it today.
5. Innovations and Technological Marvels
The 1920s brought a wave of technological advancements that forever changed daily life. The mass production of automobiles, thanks to Henry Ford’s assembly line innovation, made cars affordable and allowed more people to enjoy the freedom of the open road. Radios became household staples, transforming the way people accessed news, music, and entertainment. Household appliances like refrigerators, washing machines, and vacuums also started appearing, freeing up time and making life easier for many.
6. Art Deco Architecture
The bold, geometric style of Art Deco is another hallmark of the 1920s. Defined by its striking lines, vibrant colors, and luxurious materials, Art Deco architecture symbolized the opulence and innovation of the time. Iconic buildings like the Chrysler Building in New York City embody this style and are still considered architectural masterpieces. Even today, Art Deco is seen in furniture, jewelry, and graphic design, admired for its glamour and modernity.
7. The Rise of Women’s Rights
The 1920s were pivotal for women’s rights. In 1920, the 19th Amendment was passed, granting women the right to vote in the United States—a major milestone in the ongoing struggle for gender equality. Alongside the flapper movement, which embraced a more liberated lifestyle, women were taking on new roles in the workforce, education, and society. This wave of independence and empowerment continues to influence feminist movements and social progress.
8. Literature and the Lost Generation
The 1920s gave birth to a wave of literary giants known as the “Lost Generation,” including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein. Writers of this era were disillusioned by the aftermath of World War I, and their works explored themes of existential angst, decadence, and the American Dream. The Great Gatsby, with its glittering parties and poignant critique of wealth, remains an essential novel of the 1920s and continues to captivate readers with its depiction of the Jazz Age.
9. Dance Crazes and Social Fun
From the Charleston to the Lindy Hop, the 1920s were marked by an explosion of dance crazes that captured the spirit of the time. Dance halls were filled with people trying out the latest steps to the upbeat sounds of jazz and big bands. These lively dances reflected the energy and optimism of the Roaring Twenties, encouraging people to let loose and have fun. Today, we see a revival of these dances in swing clubs and dance competitions, showcasing their timeless appeal.
10. The End of the Decade and the Stock Market Crash
Though the 1920s are remembered for their vibrance, the decade ended on a somber note with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, leading to the Great Depression. The economic hardships that followed were starkly different from the prosperity of the early twenties, bringing an end to the era’s revelry. This contrast serves as a reminder of the complexities of history, as periods of joy and success often precede more challenging times.
The 1920s remain a unique chapter in history—a time of exuberance, experimentation, and cultural evolution. Its influence is visible today in fashion, music, literature, and our desire to embrace life’s excitement, no matter the challenges. So, here’s to the Jazz Age! Let’s keep dancing, dreaming, and remembering that some of the greatest moments are found when we step a little outside the lines.
The Vanishing of Josephine Reynolds by Jennifer Moorman
Bookish Buys inspired by The Vanishing of Josephine Reynolds by Jennifer Moorman
Can one thoughtless wish erase a life?
Widowed at thirty-five, Josephine Reynolds wishes she could disappear, but her concerned sister convinces her to buy their ancestral home, a Craftsman bungalow in disrepair and foreclosure. It's a welcome distraction, and Josephine can't believe her luck when she finds the home's original door in a salvage yard.
When she installs the door and steps through it, Josephine is transported into 1927, where she meets her great-grandmother Alma, a vivacious and daring woman running an illegal speakeasy in the bungalow's basement. Immersed in the vibrant Jazz Age, Josephine forms a profound bond with Alma, only to discover upon her return to the present that history has been altered. Alma's life was tragically cut short in a speakeasy raid just a week after their fateful meeting.
Josephine has a chilling revelation--her own existence is unraveling/vanishing--and she must race against time to rewrite history. Josephine is desperate to not only save Alma but save her own future in a time-bending journey where past and present intertwine in a desperate battle for survival.
The Man in Black: And Other Stories by Elly Griffiths
ONIX Retailer Description
From the internationally bestselling author of the Ruth Galloway Mysteries, an eclectic, thrilling collection of short stories, featuring many characters that readers have come to know and love.
Elly Griffiths has always written short stories to experiment with different voices and genres as well as to explore what some of her fictional creations such as Ruth Galloway, Harbinder Kaur, and Max Mephisto might have done outside of the novels. The Man in Black gathers these bite-sized tales all together in one splendid volume.
There are ghost stories, cozy mysteries, tales of psychological suspense, and poignant vignettes of love and loss.
In the title story, Ruth Galloway crosses paths with a mysterious man in a bookstore, setting in motion a rescue mission that hinges on the legends and lore of Norfolk.
Looking into the past, a young magician in 1920s Leeds wonders just what happened to his missing landlady in “Max Mephisto and the Disappearing Act.”
In “Justice Jones and the Etherphone,” a witty girl detective investigates the dire prediction of a fortune teller in dreary postwar London.
A flashback in time reveals Harbinder Kaur as a Detective Sergeant surviving her first day on the job at Shoreham DCI.
To celebrate the holidays, Ruth gets her very first Christmas tree, and her beloved cat narrates his own seasonal story in “Flint’s Fireside Tale.”
And readers can armchair travel with stories set on the Amalfi Coast, in Capri, and in Egypt as Ruth and DCI Nelson experience their very own version of Death on the Nile.
The Man in Black illustrates the breadth and variety of Elly Griffiths’s talent for blood-chilling, page-turning stories all with her trademark humor and heart.
Daughter of Ruins by Yvette Manessis Corporon
Also listed in Books Set in the 1930s and Books Set in the 1940s
A motherless daughter. An Italian prostitute. A mail-order bride. Are these women brave enough to change their fates?
Demitra's mother died in America in the 1930s when Demitra was three years old. Her father took her home to the Greek island of Cephalonia, where she endures a lonely childhood and dreams her dead mother watches over her, like the goddesses she reads about in her mythology books. When Demitra comes of age, she refuses to marry the man chosen for her. Instead, she defiantly begins an affair with a forbidden man who ignites her passion for painting the goddesses she once imagined protected her.
Elena is a beautiful Italian woman who dreamed of a life away from the brothels where she was raised. But opportunities are not meant for daughters of prostitutes and Elena has no choice but to become one herself. When Italy occupies Cephalonia, Elena finds work entertaining the soldiers. Her life on the island is happy and carefree--until the Germans arrive in 1943.
Maria lives in a poor mountain village in 1921 with a loving mother and sister. When her father grows desperate to feed his family, he sends her to America as a picture bride to marry a stranger. Only eighteen years old, Maria is terrified of the journey ahead.
Daughter of Ruins is an all-encompassing tale steeped in the rich history, culture, and myths of Greece. It is a deeply moving story that follows three women as they struggle to control their destinies, fighting to become the women they were meant to be.
The Whisper Sister by Jennifer S. Brown
The streets of New York in 1920 are most certainly not paved with gold, as Minnie Soffer learns when she arrives at Ellis Island.
Her father, who left Ukraine when Minnie was a toddler, is a stranger. She sleeps on a mattress on the kitchen floor. She understands nothing at school. They came to America for this?
As her family adjusts to this new life, Minnie and her brother work hard to learn English and make friends. When her father, Ike, opens his own soda shop, stability and citizenship seem within reach. But the soda shop is not what it seems; it’s a front for Ike’s real moneymaker: a speakeasy.
When tragedy strikes the Soffers, Minnie has no choice but to take over the bar. She’s determined to make the speakeasy a success despite the risks it brings to herself, her family, and her freedom. At what price does the American dream come true? Minnie won’t stop until she finds out.
The Haunting of Moscow House by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore
In this elegant gothic horror tale set in post-revolutionary Russia, two once aristocratic sisters race to uncover their family’s long-buried secrets in a house haunted by a past that is dangerous — and deadly — to remember.
It is the summer of 1921, and a group of Bolsheviks have taken over Irina and Lili Goliteva’s ancestral home in Moscow, a stately mansion falling into disrepair and decay. The remaining members of their aristocratic family are ordered to move into the cramped attic, while the officials take over an entire wing of grand rooms downstairs. The sisters understand it is the way of things and know they must forget their noble upbringing to make their way in this new Soviet Russia. But the house begins to whisper of a traumatic past not as dead as they thought.
Eager to escape it and their unwelcome new landlords, Irina and Lili find jobs with the recently arrived American Relief Administration, meant to ease the post-revolutionary famine in Russia. For the sisters, the ARA provides much-needed food and employment, as well as a chance for sensible Irina to help those less fortunate and artistic Lili to express herself for a good cause. It might just lead them to love, too.
But at home, the spirits of their deceased family awaken, desperate to impart what really happened to them during the Revolution. Soon one of the officials living in the house is found dead. Was his death caused by something supernatural, or by someone all too human? And are Irina and Lili and their family next? Only unearthing the frightening secrets of Moscow House will reveal all. But this means the sisters must dig deep into a past no one in Russia except the dead are allowed to remember.
A Pair of Wings by Carole Hopson
A riveting, adventurous novel inspired by the life of pioneer aviatrix Bessie Coleman, a Black woman who learned to fly at the dawn of aviation, and found freedom in the air.
For fans of Hidden Figures, The Great Circle, and I Was Amelia Earhart, A Pair of Wings is an epic novel about pioneer aviatrix Bessie Coleman, whose story has waited 100 years to be told. A few years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight, Bessie was working the Texas cotton fields with her family when an airplane flew right over their heads. It buzzed so low she thought she could catch it in her hands. Bessie wasn’t afraid. Without even thinking, she spread her arms out and pretended she was flying. She knew there was freedom in those wings.
The daughter of a woman born into slavery, Bessie answers the call of the great migration, moving to Chicago as a single woman. While working as a manicurist in the White Sox barbershop, she wins the backing of two wealthy, powerful Black men, Robert Abbott, the publisher of The Chicago Defender, and Jesse Binga, Chicago’s first Black banker. Abbott becomes her mentor and chronicles her adventures, while the good-looking gun-toting Binga becomes her lover. Her first love, though, remains the airplane.
But in 1920, no one in the U.S. will train a Black woman to fly, so 26- year-old Bessie learns to speak French and bets it all on an epic journey to Europe as she begins a quest to defy the odds and gravity itself. Two years ahead of Amelia Earhart, Bessie is molded by battle-hardened French and German combat pilots, who teach her death-defying stunts. Bessie’s signature majestic loops, spiky barrel rolls, and hairpin turns, just like her hardscrabble journey, are spellbinding.
While she finds there is no prejudice in the air, Bessie must wrestle with many challenges: She nearly dies in a plane crash, one of her brothers seems to be crumbling under the weight of Jim Crow, and as she grapples with tough truths about Binga, Bessie begins to wonder if the freedom she finds in the air means she must otherwise fly solo.
With tenderness and verve, Carole Hopson imagines the breathtaking moxie that led Bessie Coleman to strap up knee-high boots and don a self-designed flight suit to become “Queen Bess” of the sky.
Three Kings: Race, Class, and the Barrier-Breaking Rivals Who Redefined Sports and Launched the Modern Olympic Age by Todd Balf
Marking the 100th anniversary of the Paris Olympics, the never-before-told story of three athletes who defied the odds to usher in a golden age of sports.
Even today, it’s considered one of the most thrilling races in Olympic history. The one-hundred-meter sprint final at the 1924 Paris Games, featuring the world’s three fastest swimmers—American legends Duke Kahanamoku and Johnny Weissmuller and Japanese upstart Katsuo Takaishi—had the cultural impact of the Super Bowl and Wimbledon and the World Cup finals put together. Never before had a major swimming event featured athletes of different races, and never had it been broadcast live. Across the globe, fans held their breath.
In less than a minute, an Olympic record would be shattered, and the three men would be scrutinized like few athletes before them. For the millions worldwide for whom swimming was a complete unknown, the trio did something few could imagine: moving faster through water than many could on land. As sportsmen, they were god-like heroes, embodying the hopes of those who called them their own in the US and abroad. They personified strength and speed and the glamor and innovation of the Roaring Twenties. But they also represented fraught assumptions about race and human performance. It was not only “East vs. West,” as newspapers in the 1920s described the competition with Japan. It was also brown versus white. Rich versus poor. New versus old. The race was about far more than swimming.
Each man was a trailblazer and a bona fide celebrity in an age when athletes typically weren’t famous. Kahanamoku was Hawaii’s first superstar, largely responsible for making the state the popular travel destination it is today. Weissmuller, a poor immigrant, put Chicago on the sports map and would make it big as Hollywood’s first Tarzan. Takaishi inspired Japan to compete on the world stage and helped turn its swimmers into Olympic powerhouses. He and Kahanamoku in particular shattered the myth of white superiority when it came to sports, putting the lie to the decade’s burgeoning eugenics movement.
Three Kings traces the careers and rivalries of these men and the epochal times they lived in. The 1920s were transformative not just socially but for sports as well. For the first time, athletes of color were given a fair (though still not equal) chance, and competition wasn’t limited to the wealthy and privileged. Our modern-day conception of athleticism and competition—especially as it relates to the Olympics—traces back to this era and athletes like Kahanamoku, Weissmuller, and Takaishi, whose hard-won victories paved the way for all who followed.
The Last Note of Warning by Katharine Schellman
Author Interview with Katharine Schellman
The Last Note of Warning is the third in the luscious, mysterious, and queer Nightingale mystery series by Katharine Schellman, set in 1920s New York.
Prohibition is a dangerous time to be a working-class woman in New York City, but Vivian Kelly has finally found some measure of stability and freedom. By day, she’s a respectable shop assistant, delivering luxurious dresses to the city’s wealthy and elite. At night, she joins the madcap revelry of New York’s underworld, serving illegal drinks and dancing into the morning at a secretive, back-alley speakeasy known as the Nightingale. She's found, if not love, then something like it with her bootlegger sweetheart, Leo, even if she can't quite forget the allure of the Nightingale's sultry owner, Honor Huxley.
Then the husband of a wealthy client is discovered dead in his study, and Vivian was the last known person to see him alive. With the police and the press both eager to name a culprit in the high-profile case, she finds herself the primary murder suspect.
She can’t flee town without endangering the people she loves, but Vivian isn’t the sort of girl to go down without a fight. She'll cash in every favor she has from the criminals she calls friends to prove she had no connection to the dead man. But she can't prove what isn't true.
The more Vivian digs into the man’s life, and as the police close in on her, the harder it is to avoid the truth: someone she knows wanted him dead. And the best way to get away with murder is to set up a girl like Vivian to take the fall.
Across the Narrows by Martha Burns
Author Interview with Martha Burns
In 1924, at Brooklyn's Kings County Hospital, Ruby del Palacio delivers a blue baby weeks early. The baby girl dies for want of oxygen. Within a year, Ruby delivers another baby girl named Alice.
Gradually realizing that her sole role in the del Palacio household is to conceive, deliver, and nurse babies, trapped by societal expectations in a time of limited women's rights and rampant injustices, Ruby summons the courage to sue for a legal separation from her Colombian husband, Juan. Her efforts are met with a counter lawsuit, resulting in Juan being granted custody of their six children. Months later, he flees the state with the children, leaving Ruby abandoned and bereft.
Decades later, Alice embarks on a journey to find her long-lost mother. It is only when a dear friend imparts a profound revelation to Alice, explaining that forgiveness necessitates relinquishing all hope for a different past, that Alice finds the strength to accept her history.
Across the Narrows unravels as a sweeping family saga, centered around a tragedy that shapes the del Palacio family's destiny and leaves little room for forgiveness. With themes of love, loss, and resilience, this poignant novel explores the transformative power of forgiveness and the pursuit of one's own identity in the face of adversity.
The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson by Ellen Baker
Author Interview with Ellen Baker
Orphan Train meets Before We Were Yours meets Water for Elephants in this compelling multigenerational novel of survival, love, and the families we make.
In 1924, four-year-old Cecily Larson’s mother reluctantly drops her off at an orphanage in Chicago, promising to be back once she’s made enough money to support both Cecily and herself. But she never returns, and shortly after high-spirited Cecily turns seven, she is sold to a traveling circus to perform as the “little sister” to glamorous bareback rider Isabelle DuMonde. With Isabelle and the rest of the circus, Cecily finally feels she’s found the family she craves. But as the years go by, the cracks in her little world begin to show. And when teenage Cecily meets and falls in love with a young roustabout named Lucky, she finds her life thrown onto an entirely unexpected—and dangerous—course.
In 2015, Cecily is now 94 and living a quiet life in Minnesota, with her daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandson. But when her family decides to surprise her with an at-home DNA test, the unexpected results not only bring to light the tragic love story that Cecily has kept hidden for decades but also throw into question everything about the family she’s raised and claimed as her own for nearly seventy years. Cecily and everyone in her life must now decide who they really are and what family—and forgiveness—really mean.
Sweeping through a long period of contemporary history, The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson is an immersive, compelling, and entertaining family drama centered around one remarkable woman and her determination to survive.
Picasso's Lovers by Jeanne Mackin
Author Interview with Jeanne Mackin
A tangled and vivid portrait of the women caught in Picasso’s charismatic orbit through the affairs, the scandals, and the art—only this time, they hold the brush.
The women of Picasso’s life are glamorous and elusive, existing in the shadow of his fame—until 1950s aspiring journalist Alana Olson determines to bring one into the light. Unsure of what to expect but bent on uncovering what really lies beneath the canvas, Alana steps into Sara Murphy’s well-guarded home to discover a past complicated by secrets and intrigue.
Sara paints a luxurious picture of the French Riviera in 1923, but also a tragic one. The more Sara reveals, the more cracks emerge in Picasso’s once-vibrant social circle—and the more Alana feels a disturbing convergence with her own life. Who are these other muses? What became of them? What will become of her?
Desperate to trace the threads, Alana dives into the glittering lives of the past. But to do so she must contend with her own reality, including a strained engagement, the male-dominated world of art journalism, and the rising threat to civil rights in America. With hard truths peeling apart around her, it turns out that the most extraordinary portrait Alana encounters is her own.
The Porcelain Maker by Sarah Freethy
Also listed in Books Set in the 1990s
An epic story of love, betrayal, and art that spans decades, through the horrors of World War II to 21st century America, inspired by an actual porcelain factory in Dachau.
Two lovers caught at the crossroads of history.
A daughter's search for the truth.
Germany, 1929. At a festive gathering of young bohemians in Weimar, two young artists, Max, a skilled Jewish architect, and Bettina, a celebrated avant-garde painter, are drawn to each other and begin a whirlwind romance. Their respective talents transport them to the dazzling lights of Berlin, but this bright beginning is quickly dimmed by the rising threat of Nazism. Max is arrested and sent to the concentration camp at Dachau where only his talent at making exquisite porcelain figures stands between him and seemingly certain death. Desperate to save her lover, Bettina risks everything to rescue him and escape Germany.
America, 1993. Clara, Bettina's daughter, embarks on a journey to trace her roots and determine the identity of her father, a secret her mother has kept from her for reasons she's never understood. Clara's quest to piece together the puzzle of her origins transports us back in time to the darkness of Nazi Germany, where life is lived on a razor's edge and deception and death lurk around every corner. Survival depends on strength, loyalty, and knowing true friend from hidden foe. And as Clara digs further, she begins to question why her mother was so determined to leave the truth of her harrowing past behind...
The Porcelain Maker is a powerful novel of enduring love and courage in the face of appalling brutality as a daughter seeks to unlock the mystery of her past.
The Letter Tree by Rachel Fordham
Mere words can’t end their families’ feud, but the Campbell heir and the Bradshaw heiress plan to write a future together.
Buffalo, NY, 1924
Laura Bradshaw adores stories with happily ever afters. But since her mother died seven years ago, the Bradshaw Shoe Company heiress has been as good as locked away in a tower. Her overbearing father cares little for her dreams, throwing himself instead into his tireless takedown of his competitor, the Campbell Shoe Company. However, Laura has been gifted with a reprieve: a mysterious friend with whom she’s been exchanging letters.
As heir to the Campbell Shoe Company, Isaac Campbell is a sought-after bachelor who has never felt an inkling of desire for the women who constantly bat their eyes at him. His thoughts are consumed by an oak tree in the Buffalo Zoo—or rather, the mystery woman he exchanges letters with courtesy of the tree. She’s been one of Isaac’s only joys in a life consumed by his father’s tireless hatred of Bradshaw. A hatred that, Isaac is coming to realize, may affect him more personally than he ever imagined.
When Laura’s father orchestrates a match between her and an important business owner, she resolves to pursue her only chance at freedom. But Isaac believes their story isn’t bound for a tragic ending. He’s certain there’s more to the Bradshaw-Campbell feud than meets the eye. And he won’t stop digging until he uncovers the truth that might bridge the divide between him and the woman whose words have captured his heart.
To Free the Stars by J'nell Ciesielski
This white-knuckled conclusion to The Brilliance of Stars takes readers on a breathless adventure from the speakeasies of America to the Horse Guards Parade in London, an ancient cemetery outside Paris, and back to the Eastern European strongholds where the Vales’ tragedy first began.
“Fate is fickle and the stars are silent, but I do know this: No matter how difficult the circumstances or how savagely the world tries to tear us apart, I am here with you.”
Ten years have passed since Jack and Ivy, elite operatives for the secret agency Talon, rescued their friend Philip and completed their fateful mission. The 1920s are in full swing as American speakeasies thrive amid Prohibition, and despite the team’s best efforts, the deadly cult, the Order of the Rising Moon, lives on in the shadows. Which is no surprise to Ivy; nothing has gone as she expected since that day after Poenari Castle.
When a wave of assassinations strikes world leaders, intel confirms the Order’s involvement. Ivy holds them responsible for the tragedy that changed her life, and she is determined to find and destroy the villains once and for all—but she must do so before their relentless assassin eliminates his next target. Her.
Except, there’s something oddly familiar about the way he moves, the way he anticipates each of her moves. It’s as if he knows her. But that’s not possible. Is it? Ivy will have to rely on every skill she’s learned if she hopes to survive—and save those she loves. No matter the cost.
Bestselling author J’nell Ciesielski wraps up the Jack and Ivy novels with yet another thrilling adventure filled with glamorous espionage and a boundless romance.
Broadway Butterfly by Sara DiVello
New York in the Roaring Twenties—a riveting true-crime novel, based on one of the most notorious unsolved murders of the era, where power, politics, and secrets conspire to bury the truth.
Manhattan, 1923. Scandalous flapper Dot King is found dead in her Midtown apartment, a bottle of chloroform beside her and a fortune in jewels missing. Dot’s headline-making murder grips the city. It also draws a clutch of lovers, parasites, and justice seekers into one of the city’s most mesmerizing mysteries.
Among them: Daily News crime reporter Julia Harpman, chasing the story while navigating a male-dominated industry; righteous NYPD detective John D. Coughlin, struggling against city corruption; and Ella Bradford, the victim’s Harlem maid, closest confidante, and keeper of secrets. Adding fuel to the already volatile crime: a politically connected Philadelphia socialite, an Atlantic City bootlegger, Dot’s dicey gigolo lover, a sultry Broadway dancer, and a cagey sugar daddy guarding secrets of his own.
From Broadway’s glittering lights to its sordid underbelly to the machinations of the country’s most powerful men, Julia embarks on a quest for justice. What she discovers, twist after breathtaking twist, might be even more nefarious than murder.
The Stolen Hours by Karen Swan
Opening in the summer of 1929, THE STOLEN HOURS focuses on Effie’s best friend, Mhairi MacKinnon, a young woman who finds herself in desperate need of a husband. She is the eldest girl of nine children, and her father has made clear that he cannot support her past the coming winter. Yet on her isolated island home, the options for marriageable men are severely limited. Fortunately, the MacKinnon’s neighbor, Donald, has a business acquaintance on Harris who happens to be in need of a wife. Donald offers to chaperone Mhairi and make the introduction on the final crossing of the year, before the stormy autumn seas and winds close St. Kilda off to the outside world until the return of calm waters in the following spring.
Mhairi arrives home in St. Kilda an engaged woman who has lost her heart—but not to her fiancée. She is in love with Donald, a man who can never be hers, and the feeling is mutual. Over the winter, the two begin a forbidden affair, dreading the arrival of spring, when Mhairi will be forced to sail off to her fate as a stranger’s wife. When word comes that St. Kilda is to be evacuated in August, the lovers are granted a few months’ reprieve. Will Mhairi find a way to change the course of her future before her entire world is upended?
Along with Mhairi’s story, THE STOLEN HOURS offers glimpses of Effie’s ongoing struggles and her startling new romance. For fans of historical fiction filled with passion and intrigue, Karen Swan’s Wild Isle series is sure to captivate and keep readers rooting for its remarkable young heroines.
The Butcher, the Embezzler, and the Fall Guy: A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry by Gretchen Cherington
Three powerful men converge on the banks of the Red Cedar River in the early 1900s in southern Minnesota—George Albert Hormel, founder of what will become the $10 billion food conglomerate Hormel Foods; Alpha LaRue Eberhart, the author’s paternal grandfather and Hormel’s Executive Vice President and Corporate Secretary; and Ransome Josiah Thomson, Hormel’s comptroller. Over ten years, Thomson will embezzle $1.2 million from the company’s coffers, nearly bringing the company to its knees.
The Butcher, the Embezzler, and the Fall Guy opens in 1922 as George Hormel calls Eberhart into his office and demands his resignation. Hailed as the true leader of the company he’d helped Hormel build—is Eberhart complicit in the embezzlement? Far worse than losing his job and the great wealth he’d rightfully accumulated is that his beloved young wife, Lena, is dying while their three children grieve alongside. Of course, his story doesn’t end there.
In scale both intimate and grand, Cherington deftly weaves the histories of Hormel, Eberhart, and Thomson within the sweeping landscape of our country’s early industries, along with keen observations about business leaders gleaned from her thirty-five-year career advising top company executives. The Butcher, the Embezzler, and the Fall Guy equally chronicles Cherington’s journey from blind faith in family lore to a nuanced consideration of the three men’s great strengths and flaws—and a multilayered, thoughtful exploration of the ways we all must contend with the mythology of powerful men, our reverence for heroes, and the legacy of a complicated past.
Lost in Paris by Betty Webb
No one can hurt you like family.
PARIS, 1922: Zoe Barlow knows the pain of loss. By the age of eighteen, she'd already lost her father to suicide, and her reputation to an ill-fated love affair—not to mention other losses, too devastating for words. Exiled from her home and her beloved younger sister by their stepmother, she was unceremoniously dumped in Paris without a friend to help her find her way.
Four years later, Zoe has forged a new life as a painter amidst fellow artists, expats, and revolutionary thinkers struggling to make sense of the world in the aftermath of war. She's adopted this Lost Generation as her new family, so when her dear friend Hadley Hemingway loses a valise containing all of her husband Ernest's writings, Zoe happily volunteers to track it down. But her search for the bag keeps leading to murder victims, and Zoe must again face hard losses—this time among her adopted tribe. If she persists in her reckless quest to find the killer, the next life lost may be her own.
Daughter Dalloway by Emily France
Also listed in Books Set in the 1950s
Perfect for fans of Marie Benedict and Renée Rosen, Daughter Dalloway is both an homage to the Virginia Woolf classic and a brilliant spin-off—the empowering, rebellious coming-of-age story of Mrs. Dalloway’s only child, Elizabeth.
London, 1952: Forty-six-year-old Elizabeth Dalloway feels she has failed at most everything in life, especially living up to her mother, the elegant Mrs. Dalloway, an ideal socialite and model of perfection until she disappeared in the summer of 1923—and hasn’t been heard from since.
When Elizabeth is handed a medal with a mysterious inscription from her mother to a soldier named Septimus Warren Smith, she’s certain it contains a clue from the past. As she sets out, determined to deliver the medal to its rightful owner, Elizabeth begins to piece together memories of that fateful summer.
London, 1923: At seventeen, Elizabeth carouses with the Prince of Wales and sons of American iron barons and decides to join the Bright Young People—a group of bohemians whose antics often land in the tabloids. She is a girl who rebels against the staid social rules of the time, a girl determined to do it all differently than her mother. A girl who doesn’t yet feel like a failure.
That summer, Octavia Smith braves the journey from the countryside to London, determined to track down her older brother Septimus who returned from the war but never came home. She falls in with a group of clever city boys who have learned to survive on the streets. When one starts to steal her heart, she must discover whether he is a friend or foe—and whether she can make it in the city on her own.
Elizabeth and Octavia are destined to cross paths, and when they do, the truths they unearth will shatter their understanding of the people they love most.
A Matter of Happiness by Tori Whitaker
Melanie Barnett thinks she has it all together. With an ex-fiancé and a pending promotion at a Kentucky bourbon distillery, Melanie has figured out that love and career don’t mix. Until she makes a discovery while cleaning her Jordan MX car, a scarlet-red symbol of the Jazz Age’s independent women that she inherited from her great-great-great-aunt Violet. Its secret compartment holds Violet’s weathered journal―within it an intriguing message: Take from this story what you will, Melanie, and you can bury the rest. Melanie wonders what more there is to learn from Violet’s past.
In 1921 Violet Bond defers to no one. Hers is a life of adventure in Detroit, the hub of the motorcar boom and the fastest growing city in America. But in an era of speakeasies, financial windfalls, free-spirited friends, and unexpected romance, it’s easy to spin out of control.
Now, as Melanie’s own world takes unexpected turns, her life and Violet’s life intersect. Generations apart, they’re coming into their own and questioning what modern womanhood―and happiness―really means.
The Forty Elephants by Erin Bledsoe
Inspired by the true story of Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants, the first all-female gang of London.
London in the 1920s is no place for a woman with a mind of her own. Gang wars, violence, and an unforgiving world have left pickpocket Alice Diamond scrambling to survive in the Mint, the gritty neighborhood her family has run for generations. When her father goes to jail yet again and her scam artist brother finds himself in debt to the dangerous McDonald crime syndicate, Alice takes over. Fighting for power at every turn, she struggles to protect her father’s territory and keep the people she loves safe from some of London’s most dangerous criminals.
Recruited by the enigmatic Mary Carr, Alice boldly chooses to break her father’s edict against gangs and become part of a group of notorious lady shoplifters, the Forty Elephants. Leaving the Mint behind, she and the other girls steal from the area’s poshest department stores, and for the first time in her life, Alice Diamond tastes success. But it’s not long before she wants more—no matter the cost. And when her past and present collide, there’s no escaping the girl from the Mint.
Finding Edward by Sheila Murray
Cyril Rowntree migrates to Toronto from Jamaica in 2012. Managing a precarious balance of work and university he begins to navigate his way through the implications of being racialized in his challenging new land. A chance encounter leads Cyril to a suitcase full of photographs and letters dating back to the early 1920s. Cyril is drawn into the letters and their story of a white mother’s struggle with the need to give up her mixed race baby, Edward. Abandoned by his own white father as a small child, Cyril’s keen intuition triggers a strong connection and he begins to look for the rest of Edward’s story. As he searches, Cyril unearths fragments of Edward’s itinerant life as he crisscrossed the country. Along the way, he discovers hidden pieces of Canada’s Black history and gains the confidence to take on his new world.
The Paris Showroom by Juliet Blackwell
Also listed in Books Set in the 1940s
Author Interview with Juliet Blackwell
Capucine Benoit works alongside her father to produce fans of rare feathers, beads, and intricate pleating for the haute couture fashion houses. But after the Germans invade Paris in June 1940, Capucine and her father must focus on mere survival—until they are betrayed to the secret police and arrested for his political beliefs. When Capucine saves herself from deportation to Auschwitz by highlighting her connections to Parisian design houses, she is sent to a little-known prison camp located in the heart of Paris, within the Lévitan department store.
There, hundreds of prisoners work to sort through, repair, and put on display the massive quantities of art, furniture, and household goods looted from Jewish homes and businesses. Forced to wait on German officials and their wives and mistresses, Capucine struggles to hold her tongue in order to survive, remembering happier days spent in the art salons, ateliers, and jazz clubs of Montmartre in the 1920s.
Westside Lights by W.M. Akers
The Alienist meets the magical mystery of The Ninth House as W. M. Akers returns with the third book in his critically acclaimed Jazz Age fantasy series set in the dangerous Westside of New York City, following private detective Gilda Carr’s hunt for the truth—one tiny mystery at a time.
The Westside of Manhattan is desolate, overgrown, and dangerous—and Gilda Carr wouldn’t have it any other way. An eccentric detective whose pursuit of tiny mysteries has dragged her to the brink of madness, Gilda spends 1923 searching for something that’s eluded her for years: peace. On the revitalized waterfront of the Lower West, Gilda and the gregarious ex-gangster Cherub Stevens start a new life on a stolen yacht. But their old life isn’t done with them yet.
They dock their boat on the edge of the White Lights District, a new tenderloin where liquor, drugs, sex, and violence are shaken into a deadly cocktail. When her pet seagull vanishes into the District, Gilda throws herself into the search for the missing bird. Up late watching the river for her pet, Gilda has one drink too many and passes out in the cabin of her waterfront home.
She wakes to a massacre.
Eight people have been slaughtered on the deck of the Misery Queen, and Cherub is among the dead. Gilda, naturally, is the prime suspect. Hunted by the police, the mob, and everyone in between, she must stay free long enough to find the person who stained the Hudson with her beloved’s blood. She will discover that on her Westside, no lights are bright enough to drive away the darkness.
The Corset Maker by Annette Libeskind Berkovits
“The Corset Maker” traces the remarkable life of Rifka, a courageous teen living in Warsaw in the late 1920s and early ‘30s. Raised in a Jewish Orthodox household, Rifka asks her father why girls don’t have Bar Mitzvahs. His response causes her to rebel against tradition, and she soon opens a corset shop with her closest friend, Bronka. What follows is an international odyssey that takes Rifka to Paris, Palestine, and eventually to Spain where the Spanish Civil War is heating up. Coming of age in a tumultuous time marked by the expansion of fascism, Rifka's early convictions of pacifism are called into question as her very identity hangs on the line.
The Pilot's Daughter by Meredith Jaeger
In the final months of WWII, San Francisco newspaper secretary Ellie Morgan should be planning her wedding. Instead, she’s flexing her under-utilized reporting skills to track down her missing father, a pilot who disappeared during a mission over the Adriatic Sea. When she finds a stack of love letters from a woman who is not her mother in her father’s recovered possessions, she vows to uncover the truth about her father—and the mysterious woman he fell in love with. Ellie turns to her aunt, Iris, for help, arriving on her doorstep clutching a stack of letters from a woman whose name Iris hasn't heard in decades. Iris is terrified, knowing that these letters could bring to light secrets she’s kept hidden for half a lifetime—her past as a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl in 1920s New York City. Iris’s secrets could reveal much more than the origin of her brother-in-law's alleged affair, but it will take both women embarking on a cross-country mission to find the truth—a journey that just might shatter everything they thought they knew about the past, their family, and themselves.
My Mistress' Eyes are Raven Black by Terry Roberts
Ellis Island, 1920. New York Harbor's immigration and public health authorities are slowly recovering from the war years when a young, pregnant Irish woman disappears from the Isolation Hospital on Ellis Island. Stephen Robbins, a specialist in finding missing persons, is assigned the case. Yet when he arrives at the isolation hospital, he discovers an inexplicable string of deaths and disappearances among immigrant patients...and a staff that seems to be hiding a chilling secret. Stephen finds an ally in Lucy Paul, an undercover nurse who is also investigating the mysterious incidents. Together, they begin to unearth a horrifying conspiracy masked beneath the hospital's charitable exterior. As Stephen and Lucy get closer to the truth and each other, they are swept directly into the danger haunting Ellis Island and become the next targets.
1920s Fashion
The fashion of the 1920s embodied the spirit of change, liberation, and bold expression. Following World War I, this decade saw people embracing new styles that broke from the formal constraints of the past. With the rise of jazz, speakeasies, and an overall mood of rebellion, fashion became more relaxed, expressive, and daring. Here’s a look at some of the major elements that defined the iconic look of the Roaring Twenties.
1. The Flapper Style
The “flapper” became a defining image of the 1920s—a young, fashionable woman who challenged societal norms with her short hair, daring style, and independent spirit. Flapper dresses featured dropped waistlines and straight silhouettes, abandoning the traditional hourglass figure and corseted waist.
Hemlines were higher than ever before, with skirts ending at or just below the knee. This was a revolutionary shift, allowing more freedom of movement on the dance floor for popular jazz dances like the Charleston.
Fabrics like silk, velvet, and chiffon were common, often embellished with beading, fringe, and sequins to catch the light and enhance movement.
2. Accessories and Glamour
Accessories played a huge role in 1920s fashion. Long strands of pearls, feathered headbands, and jeweled brooches added opulence to outfits.
Headwear was particularly popular, with cloche hats—a fitted, bell-shaped hat—becoming an essential part of women’s fashion. The close-fitting style complemented the bobbed hairstyles and emphasized the face.
Gloves, often in lace or leather, were worn to complete an elegant look, and women commonly carried compact handbags with small mirrors and compacts, since makeup application in public was becoming more acceptable.
3. Short Hairstyles and Bold Makeup
The 1920s marked a significant change in women’s hairstyles. The bob became the trend, with stars like Louise Brooks and Clara Bow popularizing this short, sleek cut. Other styles included the Eton crop (a very close cut), finger waves, and marcel waves.
Makeup was bold and dramatic, emphasizing a new kind of beauty ideal. Dark kohl-lined eyes, rouge, and a sharply defined cupid’s bow lip in colors like deep red and plum were the hallmark of the “flapper” face. This shift toward visible makeup was a dramatic departure from previous decades when cosmetics were more subtly applied.
4. Menswear: Sharp Suits and New Casual Styles
For men, the 1920s brought about a shift towards more casual elegance. While suits remained standard, they became more fitted and less stiff, with shorter jackets and looser trousers.
Oxford bags, wide-legged trousers often paired with a blazer, became fashionable. Men also wore argyle sweaters, blazers, and knickerbockers for a more relaxed look.
Hats were still an essential part of men’s fashion, with popular styles including fedoras, newsboy caps, and boaters. Bow ties and pocket squares added a touch of flair, while shoes like two-tone oxfords added a stylish edge.
5. Eveningwear and the Influence of Art Deco
For evening attire, women embraced the glamour of luxurious fabrics and intricate details. Dresses were adorned with beads, sequins, feathers, and fringe, creating a dazzling effect in the era’s dimly lit jazz clubs and speakeasies.
Art Deco, a design style defined by bold geometric shapes, metallic accents, and rich colors, heavily influenced eveningwear. Dresses and jewelry incorporated this style, with designs featuring clean lines and symmetry.
Men’s evening attire became more relaxed, too, as tuxedos were worn with softer fabrics and subtle patterns. Black-and-white combinations were classic, often paired with silk scarves or handkerchiefs.
6. Sportswear and the Emergence of Casual Styles
The 1920s saw a newfound emphasis on sportswear, as leisure activities and sports became more popular. Coco Chanel pioneered casual, comfortable fashion for women, introducing knitted cardigans, pleated skirts, and even trousers as acceptable daywear.
Sweaters, vests, and loose-fitting pants became staples for men’s casual attire, while women started wearing beach pajamas and rompers for vacations and seaside outings.
7. The Influence of Hollywood
Silent film stars like Clara Bow, Gloria Swanson, and Rudolph Valentino influenced fashion choices as fans sought to emulate the glamorous looks they saw on the silver screen. Fashion magazines and Hollywood itself promoted these trends, spreading the iconic 1920s style across the world.
The fashion of the 1920s was more than a style; it represented a cultural shift toward freedom, innovation, and modernity. It paved the way for future fashion revolutions, proving that clothing could be a powerful vehicle for self-expression and societal change. From sleek flapper dresses to Art Deco embellishments, the trends of the 1920s remain timeless and are still celebrated for their boldness, sophistication, and unforgettable charm.
