The Wharton Plot

Mariah Fredericks' mesmerizing novel, The Wharton Plot, follows renowned novelist Edith Wharton in the twilight years of the Gilded Age in New York as she tracks a killer.

New York City, 1911. Edith Wharton, almost equally famed for her novels and her sharp tongue, is bone-tired of Manhattan. Finding herself at a crossroads with both her marriage and her writing, she makes the decision to leave America, her publisher, and her loveless marriage.

And then, dashing novelist David Graham Phillips--a writer with often notorious ideas about society and women's place in it--is shot to death outside the Princeton Club. Edith herself met the man only once, when the two formed a mutual distaste over tea in the Palm Court of the Belmont hotel. When Phillips is killed, Edith's life takes another turn. His sister is convinced Graham was killed by someone determined to stop the publication of his next book, which promised to uncover secrets that powerful people would rather stayed hidden. Though unconvinced, Edith is curious. What kind of book could push someone to kill?

Inspired by a true story, The Wharton Plot follows Edith Wharton through the fading years of the Gilded Age in a city she once loved so well, telling a taut tale of fame, love, and murder, as she becomes obsessed with solving a crime.

Author: Mariah Fredericks
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: 01/23/2024
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.52h x 6.46w x 0.81d
ISBN: 9781250827425


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 08/01/2023 pg. 10
Publishers Weekly 10/30/2023
Library Journal 10/13/2023 pg. 1
Booklist 12/01/2023 pg. 108
Kirkus Reviews 01/01/2024