Mood Indigo - Hardcover

It's New York, it's winter, and it's 1934. Honoria Barlow, raised from infancy in a Catholic orphanage, is a dedicated and prosperous "movie script doctor," currently living with her lover, Mick, a mysterious Russian she met while traveling in Europe. Maybelle, a proud and determined young woman from Harlem, is Honoria's fiercely loyal secretary of five years. At the urging of guileless Chip Stevenson, the son of Honoria's deceased best friend, the women try to uncover the secrets behind the murder/suicide of wolf-in-sheep's-clothing Dee Dee Carlson, Chip's fortune-seeking girlfriend. Curiously, the mystery-solving endeavors of Honoria and Maybelle take a backseat to the interaction between Honoria's comrades and housemates and Allen's vivid portrait of Depression-era America. However, the arrangement works quite nicely, allowing the character's devotion to Honoria and their personal and collective histories to shine through. Mood Indigo is a truly delightful tale, complete with an unpretentious mystery and a refreshingly warm tribute to friendship thrown in for good measure. Toni Hyde