Read January 2020.
New York, 1911 and the Gilded Age is in full swing. Business is booming and the super-rich are reaping the benefits.
Twenty-one year old heiress, Peggy Batternberg finds herself called on to spend the summer with her dysfunctional family at The Oriental Hotel in New York's playground, Coney Island, so they can present a united front to the wealthy fiance of her sister, Lydia.
Peggy would rather be anywhere than here - relations with her snobbish family have been strained since the death of her father, and she much prefers to keep out of the limelight working incognito at the Moonrise Bookstore, Manhattan. It also doesn't help that she has history with her sister's betrothed.
However, Peggy soon discovers that she can experience a sort of freedom she has not known before, among the delights Coney Island has to offer. Before long, she finds herself falling in love with a penniless, Serbian artist, called Stefan - a man her family would be horrified to learn she has been spending time with.
But more is going on in New York's playground that love. Underneath the surface of her seemingly respectable family lurks a web of deceit, betrayal and dangerous secrets. Can the Batternbergs and their friends get away with anything...even murder?
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We often hear a lot about the Golden Age of Hollywood on America's West Coast, but Nancy Bilyeau's fabulous Dreamland picks you up and carries you along on a glorious tide, right back to the heady days of America's Gilded Age, on the East Coast: an age spanning the period between just before and after the turn of the twentieth century, when America was booming and the select few at the helm of industry were raking in a fortune. Of course, once they became rich, it was of primary importance to distance themselves from the less seemly side of life and indulge themselves with the proceeds of their (often dubiously obtained) gains, and so Manhattan Beach, Coney Island was born.
The huge and splendid hotels at Manhattan Beach allowed New York's select to enjoy private sea bathing, luxurious dining and genteel pursuits relatively near to their grand Manhattan homes, without rubbing shoulders with the hoi polloi - although they were within tantalising distance of the far less sedate pleasures Coney Island also had to offer.
Dreamland is named for one of the three amusement parks that could be be found on Coney Island, and although this was by far the most respectable of the parks, Peggy Batternberg's family would have been dismayed to learn that she secretly frequented its environs during her stay. This is not the place for a respectable woman from a family of means, who should be concerned with her reputation, although the men of the family are clearly allowed much more freedom to indulge their whims and desires. But this is a new century and women are starting to make their voices heard. Times are changing and Peggy is a woman of this new age - bold and willing to take risks - a woman who does not want her life ruled by hypocritical men. She makes a great leading character.
The Dreamland amusement park itself has a most fascinating history of rapid rise and tragic fall, and Nancy Bilyeau skillfully drops in little tit-bits of its factual past, entwining them with Peggy's story of corruption, class and dangerous obsession. Peggy drags us headlong into an unexpected murder mystery, which leads her into peril as she tries to save the man she loves. Everyone around her seems to have dark secrets and figuring out who she can trust is not an easy task. She cannot rely upon New York's elite to have her back, if they ever truly did, as the masks they hide behind start to crack and fall away. Peggy must find her friends from the lower orders of Coney Island's pleasure grounds if she is to have any sort of success, and through her eyes we get a glimpse of what life is life for the poor of New York too.
The suspense builds up nicely, as the pages fly by, to a blazing finale that will leave you breathless! An exciting story, against a fabulous backdrop, that offers a fascinating glimpse into the history of the era - what's not to love? It's brilliant!
Dreamland is available to order from your favourite book retailer in e-book and paperback, and is publishing on 16th January 2020.
Amazon link here.
This is definitely one that lovers of great historical fiction should be adding their shelves on Goodreads! You can find the Goodreads link here.
Thank you to Hannah Groves at Endeavour Media and Nancy Bilyeau for providing me with a copy of Dreamland for review.
From the book cover:
But the invitation to Coney Island is unwelcome. Despite hailing from one of America’s richest families, Peggy would much rather spend the summer working at the Moonrise Bookstore than keeping up appearances with New York City socialites and her snobbish, controlling family.
But soon it transpires that the hedonism of Coney Island affords Peggy the freedom she has been yearning for, and it’s not long before she finds herself in love with a troubled pier-side artist of humble means, whom the Batternberg patriarchs would surely disapprove of.
Disapprove they may, but hidden behind their pomposity lurks a web of deceit, betrayal and deadly secrets. And as bodies begin to mount up amidst the sweltering clamour of Coney Island, it seems the powerful Batternbergs can get away with anything… even murder.
About the author:
Nancy Bilyeau is the author of the 18th century thriller "The Blue" and the Tudor mystery series The Crown, The Chalice and The Tapestry. She is a magazine editor who has lived in the United States and Canada and a direct descendant of Pierre Billiou, a French Huguenot who immigrated to what was then New Amsterdam (later New York City) in 1661. Nancy's ancestor, Isaac, was born on the boat crossing the Atlantic, the St. Jean de Baptiste. Pierre's stone house still stands and is the third oldest house in New York State.
Nancy, who studied History and Political Science at the University of Michigan, has worked on the staff of "InStyle" and "Rolling Stone," and is currently the deputy editor of the Center on Media, Crime and Justice at John Jay College in New York City. She is a regular contributor to Town & Country.
"The Crown" was placed on the shortlist of the Crime Writers' Association's Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award.
Nancy lives with her husband and two children in New York City.
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