Review: The Phoenix Crown

Title: The Phoenix Crown

Author: Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

Publisher: 15th February 2024 by HarperCollins Publishers Australia

Pages: 384 pages

Genre: historical fiction, mystery

My Rating: 4 crowns

Synopsis:

Versailles, 1912. At the height of an intoxicating Paris summer, a mysterious American millionaire attends a sumptuous costume ball with his bride, on whom he has bestowed the legendary Phoenix Crown—a priceless relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace. The party of the century kicks off with three hundred guests, nine hundred bottles of champagne—and one quest for justice that spans two continents and six years.

San Francisco, 1906. In a bustling city of newly minted millionaires and hopeful upstarts, four very different women cross paths: a resourceful Chinatown embroideress desperately searching for her lost love, a silver-voiced soprano who performs alongside Enrico Caruso, a mysteriously disappeared artist, and an independent female botanist obsessed with collecting a rare flower that only blooms at night. One man seemingly holds the key to their questions: Henry Thornton, the charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the Phoenix Crown.

The women’s lives are thrown into chaos when the San Francisco earthquake rips the city apart and Thornton disappears . . . leaving a mystery in his wake that reaches further than anyone could have imagined.

My Thoughts

Anything penned by Kate Quinn is worthy of your attention. On this occasion, The Phoenix Crown has a unique cast of female characters at its heart that is sure to draw readers in. There is an opera singer, a botanist, a painter and a Chinese seamstress who find their lives thrown together and must learn to overcome major obstacles to find justice.

‘Take four women as different as four women could be - an opera singer in her thirties, an emaciated artist from the Bronx, a capable middle-aged scientist, a Chinese seamstress not even twenty.’

This book is of course jointly written with Kate and Janie Chang and I am happy to report that their collaboration is seamless. Although not as rich as I have found Kate’s individual books to be, The Phoenix Crown flowed easily with complimentary writing styles that would make it difficult to pick individual contributions. The book is well researched with focus on topics including opera singing, San Francisco at the turn of the century with a particular focus on the earthquake of 1906. Perhaps the most powerful themes surrounded the treatment of Chinese immigrants and women. The Author’s Notes at the end provided great insight into both their inspiration for the tale and fact versus fiction. 

‘Phoenix Crown. Two words to spark a flurry of telegrams across oceans and continents. Two words to spark frenzied plans, hasty boat tickets, memory-fueled nightmares.’

The Phoenix Crown does a wonderful job of transporting readers to another place and time. It may at times lack the sophistication we have come to expect from Kate alone, however, it does a superb job highlighting a variety of topical issues. If stories of female friendship coming together and supporting one another to undergo self discovery appeals to you then certainly this book is most entertaining. 

“Oh, a phoenix crown … This must’ve belonged to an empress. Or a royal consort.” Only women from the royal family could’ve owned such a headdress.”

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This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.