The Phoenix Crown - Kate Quinn, Janie Chang - 2024 A Novel

By: Kate Quinn, Janie Chang Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Katharine Chin Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins Unabridged Audiobook Release date: 02-13-24 Categories: Literature & Fiction, Historical Fiction Language: English Publisher: HarperAudio Format: mp3 64/48 mono

Publisher's Summary:

From bestselling authors Janie Chang and Kate Quinn, a thrilling and unforgettable narrative about the intertwined lives of two wronged women, spanning from the chaos of the San Francisco earthquake to the glittering palaces of Versailles.

San Francisco, 1906. In a city bustling with newly minted millionaires and scheming upstarts, two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano whose career desperately needs rekindling, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress who is determined to escape an arranged marriage. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace.

His patronage offers Gemma and Suling the chance of a lifetime, but their lives are thrown into turmoil when a devastating earthquake rips San Francisco apart and Thornton disappears, leaving behind a mystery reaching further than anyone could have imagined . . . until the Phoenix Crown reappears five years later at a sumptuous Paris costume ball, drawing Gemma and Suling together in one last desperate quest for justice.

©2023 Kate Quinn and Janie Chang (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

Editorial Review

Two historical-fiction queens join forces

Ever since her 2017 novel The Alice Network, Kate Quinn has been an automatic download for me (with The Rose Code being a particular favorite). Her stories are based on real people, are super well-researched, always have heroines that I’m rooting for within the first 10 minutes of listening, and are masterfully structured to maximize suspense. I was intrigued to see that for her latest she has a co-author for the first time, Janie Chang, a fellow bestselling historical fiction writer. This listen was my first by Chang, but after this one—about the colliding lives of several fascinating women amid the 1906 San Francisco earthquake—I’ll be digging more into her catalog for sure. This story didn’t miss a step of what I’ve come to expect from Quinn, and these two minds working together only made the work richer. — Audible Editor, Phoebe N.

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