Great Mrs. Elias - Barbara Chase-Riboud

The author of the award-winning Sally Hemings now brings to life Hannah Elias, one of the richest black women in America in the early 1900s, in this mesmerizing novel swirling with atmosphere and steeped in history.A murderand a case of mistaken identity brings the police to Hannah Elias glitzy,five-story, twenty-room mansion on Central Park West. This is the beginning of an odyssey that moves back andforth in time and reveals the dangerous secrets of a mysterious woman, thefortune she built, and her precipitous fall.Born inPhiladelphia in the late 1800s, Hannah Elias has done things shes not proud ofto survive. Shedding her past, Hannah slips on a new identity before relocatingto New York City to become as rich as a robber baron. Hannah quietly invests in the stock market, growingher fortune with the help of businessmen. As the money pours in, Hannah hidesher millions across 29 banks. Finally attaining the life shes always dreamed,she buys a mansion on the Upper West Side and decorates it in gold and first-ratedcor, inspired by her idol Cleopatra.The unsolvedmurder turns Hannahs world upside-down and threatens to destroy everythingshes built. When the truth of her identity is uncovered, thousands ofprotestors gather in front of her stately home. Hounded by the salacious press,the very private Mrs. Elias finds herself alone, ensnared in a scandaloustrial, and accused of stealing her fortune from whites.Packedwith glamour, suspense, and drama, populated with real-life luminaries from theperiod, The Great Mrs. Elias brings a fascinating woman and the age sheembodied to glorious, tragic life.