Tiffany Blues

News of the real-life 1957 fire that destroyed Laurelton Hall, Louis Comfort Tiffany’s mansion on Long Island, prompts Jenny Bell, the narrator of this intriguing, supernaturally tinged historical from bestseller Rose (The Library of Light and Shadow), to recall her time at Laurelton, where she “came of age as both a woman and a painter.” Flash back to Manhattan in the spring of 1924. Minx Deering, the spoiled daughter of a shipping magnate father and a socialite mother, takes aspiring artist Jenny under her wing. That relationship leads to an opportunity for Jenny to spend two months at Laurelton, where she’s obliged to be only engaged in her host’s “quest for beauty.” Jenny’s complex backstory deepens the familiar contours of a young woman’s finding love and professional purpose. Rose artfully reveals, in stages, how Jenny was shaped by the death of her stepfather, an abusive cleric, who was accidentally pushed to his death by her mother. The paranormal aspect—ominous messages from a Ouija board—is unobtrusive. The multifaceted Jenny will strike Rose fans as her best creation yet. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House. (Aug.)