The Spectacular

Davis’s (The Magnolia Palace) 1950s-set novel stars 19-year-old Marion Brooks, who teaches dance in New York City. Her widowed father barely tolerates her working because he expects her to marry her beau, Nathaniel, and settle down in the suburbs. Marion wants more. On the day she is fired from her teaching position, she overhears that the Radio City Rockettes are holding auditions. Sharing this exciting opportunity with her father and sister, she is told that it is out of the question. She sneaks off to the audition and wins a spot in the troupe. Upon hearing this news, her father banishes her from the home. Meanwhile, for 16 years the city has been plagued with random bombings at crowded places like Radio City by a person whom the press calls the “Big Apple Bomber.” A catastrophic bombing finds Marion colliding with the bomber and propels her into a dangerous search for the perpetrator.