The Spectacular

The Spectacular was written by one of my favorite authors, Fiona Davis. I loved her Magnolia Palace and had high expectations for her newest release. It is a thrilling story about love, sacrifice, and the pursuit of dreams, set amidst the glamour and glitz of Radio City Music Hall. It was published on June 13, 2023.

The publisher's summary: 

New York City, 1956: Nineteen-year-old Marion Brooks knows she should be happy. Her high school sweetheart is about to propose and sweep her off to the life everyone has always expected they’d have together: a quiet house in the suburbs, Marion staying home to raise their future children. But instead, Marion finds herself feeling trapped. So when she comes across an opportunity to audition for the famous Radio City Rockettes—the glamorous precision-dancing troupe—she jumps at the chance to exchange her predictable future for the dazzling life of a performer. 

 

Meanwhile, the city is reeling from a string of bombings orchestrated by a person the press has nicknamed the “Big Apple Bomber,” who has been terrorizing the citizens of New York for sixteen years by planting bombs in popular, crowded spaces. With the public in an uproar over the lack of any real leads after a yearslong manhunt, the police turn in desperation to Peter Griggs, a young doctor at a local mental hospital who espouses a radical new technique: psychological profiling. 

As both Marion and Peter find themselves unexpectedly pulled in to the police search for the bomber, Marion realizes that as much as she’s been training herself to blend in—performing in perfect unison with all the other identical Rockettes—if she hopes to catch the bomber, she’ll need to stand out and take a terrifying risk. In doing so, she may be forced to sacrifice everything she’s worked for, as well as the people she loves the most.

The Spectacular was fantastic! I learned alot about the beginning of the Rockettes and what the dancers lives were like. I never realized how good they were, having to learn new choreography every week while performing four concerts each day for three weeks straight. Then they were off work for a week, unless another dancer couldn't perform and they were called on to substitute. On top of that there were practice sessions several times a day.  When the author wrote about the heroine's physical pain, I felt it. However, all the work made Marion come alive.

Like all of Ms. Davis' books, it is about a famous New York City building: Radio City. I wondered whether the idea of a Rockettes story came before the idea of using Radio City. The Author's Note tells us she picks a building first. Then she looks for a seminal event that occurred there. The story she has given us in The Spectacular is historically accurate. There was a mad bomber who struck the building twice as well as bombing other buildings. A dancer and a psychiatrist put together a profile of the guy and were able to locate him. He then was sentenced to the Creedmoor Hospital mentioned on this book. With do much of the story being true, I am not sure if the book should be categorized as historical fiction. 

The writing was superb.  The pace was fast and the characters memorable. I loved the camaraderie between Marion and the dancers. They were typical young twenty somethings working their first jobs and excited over their futures. Marion's life story was heartwrenching. I felt not only her physical pain but her emotional pain as well. Losing her mother at ten was not easy, especially with a distant father and sister. I think everyone can relate to her stifled family relationships.  The men in the story were typical for the 1930s.  Marion's longtime boyfriend expected her to quit her job before he would even propose marriage.  Her father was overpowering. He expected blind obedience even though Marion and her sister were in their early 20s. 

The Spectacular is a must read for historical fiction fans. 5 out of 5 stars.