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Newport: A Novel
Newport: A Novel
Newport: A Novel
Audiobook9 hours

Newport: A Novel

Written by Jill Morrow

Narrated by Johanna Parker

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

3/5

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About this audiobook

Following in the steps of Beatriz Williams and Amor Towles, this richly atmospheric, spellbinding novel transports readers to the dazzling, glamorous world of Newport during the Roaring Twenties and to a mansion filled with secrets as a debonair lawyer must separate truth from deception.

Spring 1921. The Great War is over, Prohibition is in full swing, the Depression still years away, and Newport, Rhode Island's glittering “summer cottages” are inhabited by the gloriously rich families who built them.

Attorney Adrian De la Noye is no stranger to Newport, having sheltered there during his misspent youth. Though he’d prefer to forget the place, he returns to revise the will of a well-heeled client. Bennett Chapman's offspring have the usual concerns about their father's much-younger fiancée. But when they learn of the old widower’s firm belief that his first late wife, who “communicates” via séance, has chosen the beautiful Catherine Walsh for him, they’re shocked. And for Adrian, encountering Catherine in the last place he saw her decades ago proves to be a far greater surprise.

Still, De la Noye is here to handle a will, and he fully intends to do so—just as soon as he unearths every last secret, otherworldly or not, about the Chapmans, Catherine Walsh . . . and his own very fraught history.

A skillful alchemy of social satire, dark humor, and finely drawn characters, Newport vividly brings to life the glitzy era of the 1920s.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperAudio
Release dateJul 7, 2015
ISBN9780062395481
Author

Jill Morrow

Jill Morrow has enjoyed a wide spectrum of careers, from practicing law to singing with local bands. She holds a bachelor's degree in history from Towson University and a JD from the University of Baltimore School of Law. She lives in Baltimore.

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Reviews for Newport

Rating: 3.066666666666667 out of 5 stars
3/5

30 ratings12 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    As I have mentioned before I like this time period. So any time I come across a book set in this time period I am drawn to check it out. While I thought the author did a good job of describing the setting, I just was not as drawn to the characters a 100%. In fact, I did not engage in the story until about a third of the way in. Then I was intrigued by the story but the romance between Bennett and Catherine was more of convenience then it was of love. Yet again as I stated if you take away everything that I did not like you are left with a pretty good book. There was enough things I did like that I would read another book by this author.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Not great, but a very enjoyable book. The blurb about bringing to life the glitzy jazz age of the 20s isn't quite true, though. The book was more thoughtful and meditative with small cast of characters who learn that they can never hide from their past.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I didn't get mush of a sense of place or time with this. It is set in Newport, Rhode Island during the 1920s but it could have been set in any wealthy enclave at any time. Secrets, seances, sinister siblings, and a few surprises. An OK read. Library book
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    For Library Thing Early Reviewers:Ugh.It isn’t often that I really, completely dislike a book; but I’m afraid that is exactly what we have here. I thoroughly dislike NEWPORT by Jill Morrow.On the back of the book, NEWPORT promises to be “a portrait of a long-lost era, a sophisticated drama, and a gripping mystery.” It also describes itself as “vividly bringing to life the glitzy era of the 1920s… a skillful alchemy of social satire, dark humor, and finely drawn charters.” It delivers on exactly none of those things! The “wealthy families [that] flock to the glittering ‘summer cottages’” of Newport never show up. You’re stuck for the duration with one dysfunctional family and their hangers-on, and you never make it out of the garden! It is no portrait of any era, lost or not; “sophisticated” is the last word I would choose to describe it; and the mystery was boring and no mystery. NEWPORT does not bring the 1920s to life in any way, and to have promised to do so “vividly” sets the reader up for even greater disappointment. This was no social satire, skillfully wrought or otherwise. There was no humor. And the characters? Well, ugh. Not a compelling character to be found. It is a silly spiritualist romance drama without a single likable character.In 1921, Attorney Adrian de la Noye and his assistant, Jim, travel to Newport, Rhode Island to write a new will for his longtime client, the aging Bennett Chapman who is about to marry the much younger Catharine Walsh at the behest of his long dead first wife, Elizabeth. Naturally, his adult children think he has been bamboozled by this gold digger and her “niece”, the medium, Amy. The coincidences fall all over each other in this nonsensical waste of time, and no one seems able to make a sensible decision in response to any of the hokey prompts by Elizabeth’s ghost. I kept hoping the ruse would be revealed in some interesting, lively way; but, no, the ghost is a ghost, and the rest was just melodramatic dribble with its fill of raped maids, drunken playboys, bastard children and contested wills. It was a page turner all right; I was turning the pages as quickly as possible just to be done with it so I could write this review!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The jacket copy for this is a bit misleading, Adrian isn’t out to discover or solve or investigate. Maybe it’s a mistake and the editor meant to say that Jim, Adrian’s junior lawyer, has to get to the bottom of things; that would make more sense. As it is, events happen to them and around them, but neither is directly responsible for a lot of them or information that comes to light. I’ve also seen this book characterized as glitzy or glamorous and it really isn’t. Other than the fact that it takes place in Newport, RI in a mansion and some of the characters come from ‘old money’ (not all, and boy is there ever a distinction with ‘new money’), there isn’t a lot of high-living going on here. In order for this book to work for you, you have to let go of something fairly obvious; that no one apart from one character is skeptical enough when it comes to Amy’s powers as a medium, and even he doesn’t take it as far as he should. The whole medium/ghost thing was really drawn out. Needlessly so and it was glaringly unrealistic. Especially in the wake of the whole Houdini/Conan-Doyle battle which would have been in recent memory. Overall it’s a fairly distinctive story told well, albeit at a slow pace with little to shock or awe. Most of the romantic couplings were overly fraught and kind of soppy and it was good that they didn’t take up even more of the story.Spoiler-sensitive types, should quit reading now. As soon as the Catherine of the 1898 time frame started talking about running out of time, I knew she was pregnant. The whole Newport charade was ill-timed and she pushed it so hard that it couldn’t have been anything else. When she threw herself at the loathsome Peter with such force it was obvious. And that Amy was the likely outcome although she didn’t realize she was C’s daughter, and not her niece, for a while yet. And then when Nicholas revealed that he’d been to the Delano house and even thought about courting Adrian’s sister Edith, the final piece fell into place; dad. And then the rest of the scheme tumbles and makes sense. Revenge. Vindication. Comeuppance. Sort of. As heartbreaking as it was for Adrian, C’s abandonment was a blessing. Sure, she could have pinned the kid on him and he’d have believed her, but Morrow made her do the right thing. Their marriage and its quick annulment don’t go far enough to explain Adrian’s complete estrangement from his family and that remains a mystery, but not an annoying one. Between that and his carousing in Europe, we can fill in the blanks, but it seems a name change would denote some reason that his family perpetrated, not him, so that seemed uneven. One small detail that I liked in terms of characterization was how Morrow didn’t change Chloe completely after she comes to believe her mother is speaking through Amy. She curbs her drinking for a while, but goes right back to it in a short time. I thought that rang pretty true. Whether she’s right to believe goes unanswered though. Is Amy truly channeling the dead? That remains ambiguous, but given the rest of the story and Amy’s own lies, I doubt it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Many thanks to librarything.com for the advanced copy of Newport by Jill Morrow in exchange for my honest review.Despite a slow start, Newport was an excellent novel, one that I enjoyed very much. It captured my attention and engaged me throughout; I read a great deal and many of the books are just shades of the same story. Newport was not your typical novel; I appreciated its originality and creativity. Although Adrian and Jim reminded me of Sherlock Holmes and Watson, they had distinct personalities with their own interesting back story.Adrian and Jim have come to change the Will of their client Bennett Chapman, a wealthy curmudgeon due to marry a much younger woman, Catherine Walsh. Bennett's children despise his fiancé and question her intentions. However, their motives are suspect as well. The children claim that the Will should remain as is due to their father's lack of mental capacity to legally change it. Bennett claimed that his former wife was sending him messages during seances instructing him to marry this woman and to change his Will as soon as their marriage was official. Ms. Morrow skillfully crafted a well-developed, suspenseful story that was smart and unique. I highly recommend it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The publisher calls this "A skillful alchemy of social satire, dark humor, and finely drawn characters". It certainly fills that bill.Up front, Newport is one of my favorite cities. My husband and I met there, and subsequently spent several years living there. We returned there about a year ago for a short reunion trip after an absence of almost 20 years. It's still glittering, glamorous, and filled with sights, sounds and smells of the ocean, although now one drives across a huge bridge rather than riding the ferry across to Aquidneck Island as we well remember.Jill Morrow captures that atmosphere using the clever scheme of alternating views from 1898 and the roaring 1920's. Her main characters, adults who come together to observe a rather unorthodox wedding/will signing, find themselves immersed in contact with other-worldly characters from the past.In short, the wedding to be celebrated is one that has been directed by the octogenarian groom-to-be's long-deceased first wife, who appears to the prospective bride's "niece" commanding that this wedding must take place forthwith, and that a new will must be signed immediately, leaving all the groom's sizeable estate to the new bride. Since this essentially cuts the two adult children of the first marriage out of the inheritance, there is some family tension being generated by the interloping new bride.To add even more mystery, the groom's attorney, who has journeyed from Boston to draw up the new will, appears to have been previously involved somehow with the potential bride. There's lots of mystery, several seances, plenty of period fluff scenes of stereotypical rich folks enjoying their inheritances, and spending their considerable wealth on frivolity and ostentatious "summer cottages".It's a well-drawn period piece. The setting is spot-on, but the characters are a bit over the top for my taste, and the story is way too melodramatic. That said, it's been a wonderful summertime read, and one that should be quite popular to readers of romance/historical fiction.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    1921- An attorney and his assistant are summoned to the elegant and elite Newport to rewrite a will and get the legal house in order for a wedding. The problem is that the wedding is between the patriarch of an old money family and a much younger woman of no means. That would be enough for a juicy story but the potential bride to be has been commanded to wed by his dead wife who communicates everything through the young bride's niece during seances. Sound fishy? Of course Bennett Chapman's two kids from the first marriage don't want the wedding and will changed leaving them with nothing, but it is up to the attorneys to determine Mr. Bennett's sanity. Is it possible that Amy is really channeling the former Mrs. Bennett and this is on the level? The story feels like Gatsby meets Miss Marple and they play an afternoon of Clue. There are enough plot twists and turns to keep you engaged to the last page as well as an interesting take on the interest in the occult during that time and the con artists who played upon the old and their money. Mrs. Plum in the library with a candlestick?
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I really did enjoy this book, the mystery kept me going and the end blew me away. I'm not one to give away any details, I so enjoyed the gifts at the end of the book explaining the Four Hundred, but really would have loved to read more about the mansions and the parties of those days. I will anticipate more to read fro this author!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    "What a tangle web we weave once we practice to deceive." Newport is an historic fiction which explores various deceptions the Chapman family faces during a changing of a will. Bennett Chapman wishes to marry Catharine Walsh, a much younger woman, but his two adult children wish that he be found insane. Bennett is thought to be insane because his late wife has informed him from beyond to marry Miss Walsh. Is Miss Walsh a gold digger, is Elizabeth Chapman's spirit truly communicated through Amy Walsh, the niece of the bride to be and what does Mr. Chapman's lawyer Adrian de la Noye know about the bride's family?This books will keep you guessing through the story and perhaps beyond the pages. I read this book in two days because the suspense of finding the real reason Elizabeth Chapman wanted her husband to marry Miss Walsh. Unfortunately, I did not solve the mystery correct but perhaps you can.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It’s a common thread – old man decides to marry a young woman and grown children begin to worry over their place in old man’s will. However, this time the story is told with a historical vibe. Attorney Adrian De la Noye is the attorney for Bennett Chapman. After the grown children claim their father has lost his mental capacity to make changes in his will, Adrian must make that determination for himself. The problem? Bennett has been claiming that his late wife, Elizabeth, told him to marry young Catherine Walsh. It seems Catherine’s niece, Amy Walsh, is a medium and they’ve contacted Elizabeth in a séance. In fact, she was not only adamant that he marry Catherine, but that do so very quickly. Jim Reid was Adrian’s associate. He became attracted to Amy. They both begin to sense that Adrian and Catherine already know each other.When I began reading, the time period was Spring 1921. This information was obtained from the back of the book cover and not from the opening paragraphs of the novel. Chapter nine takes us back to February 1898 where the reader begins to learn Adrian and Catherine’s past. I loved the character of Jim. He was a true gentleman and very kindly. There are a few twists in this story and I enjoyed the interplay between the characters who each seemed to have their own secret. The blurb promises “the dazzling, glamorous world of Newport during the Roaring Twenties.” Although I enjoyed the story, I just need to say I didn’t get a “Roaring Twenties” feel from it. Rating: 4 out of 5.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Anyone who has been to Newport, Rhode Island has seen the opulent magnificence of the summer homes there. But even the staggering wealth of the inhabitants could not shield them from death, not from natural causes or those resulting from the Great War or the Influenza pandemic of 1918. With so many people in the country reeling from the loss of loved ones, spiritualism, contacting the dead from beyond the grave, gained wide-spread acceptance. Some of the mediums were charlatans preying on a grieving population while others might have been sincere in their desire to help the living. Jill Morrow's intriguing novel, Newport, is grounded very much in this decadent Roaring Twenties milieu of riches, loss, skepticism, and the spirit world and its adherents. Adrian De la Noye is a lawyer with wealthy clients. He and his young, impressionable associate, Jim Reid, are headed to Newport to revise the will of one of the wealthiest, Bennett Chapman, in advance of his upcoming second marriage. But Chapman's rather unpleasant grown children, Nicholas and Chloe, are convinced he's being scammed and want to prevent their future stepmother from getting her hands on their father's fortune. When Adrian discovers that the prospective bride is Catherine Walsh, a woman he once knew with whom he shares a long past history, and that Chapman is certain that his late wife, speaking through Catherine's niece Amy, a medium, has chosen her as Bennett's next wife, he must get to the bottom of the potentially delicate situation and determine whether Chapman is being taken for a ride or whether Catherine and Amy are above board. As Adrian and Jim participate in the séances to call the late Mrs. Chapman, they are each in turn convinced that Amy Walsh is in fact a legitimate medium and that the truths she exposes do come from the beyond becoming as ensnared in the slowly tightening web as anyone. Morrow does a good job twisting and turning her plot, keeping the reader guessing almost as much as her characters. The eventual revelations and unwinding of the mystery behind Catherine and Amy unmasks the time's terrible disparity between classes, the ease of privilege and the helplessness of the underclass, and the idea of restitution and right. Although this is not a traditional ghost story, the thread of the supernatural weaves throughout the entire story, alternately laced with both skepticism and legitimacy, echoing the way manifestations of the spirit world were viewed at the time. The character of Catherine was very contained but Morrow added just enough of her emotions to allow the reader to question of her motives, flip-flopping between believing that she was an opportunist and that she was honest many times as the tale unwound. Adrian as a character also keeps his cards very close to his chest, not revealing all of his knowledge at one time, patiently waiting to see how much he will be required to expose. The story starts off seeming to head in one way but as the tension rises and the second storyline is added, it heads in a completely different direction. A quick and spell-binding read, the novel offers readers both romance and suspense in its fascinating historical setting.