Inspired by a real-life scandal that was shocking even for the tumultuous Roaring Twenties, this captivating novel tells the story of a secret marriage by a New York elite that ignites an explosive battle over race and class—and three very different women struggling for truth, legitimacy, and the futures they risked everything to shape …
New York, 1924. Born to English immigrants who’ve built a comfortable life, idealistic Alice Jones longs for the kind of true love her mother and father have. She believes she’s found it with Leonard “Kip” Rhinelander, the shy heir to his prominent white family’s real estate fortune. Alice, too, is white, though she is vaguely aware of rumors that question her ancestry—gossip her parents dismiss. But when the lovers secretly wed, Kip’s father threatens her new husband’s inheritance unless he annuls the marriage.
Devastated but determined, Alice faces overwhelming odds legally and in the merciless court of public opinion. But there are two people who can either help her—or shatter her hopes for good: In the 1940s, her estranged niece, Roberta Brooks, must put aside her disdain for her infamous aunt to combat an unexpected new Rhinelander legal assault. And in the 1920s, reporter Marvel Cunningham lives to chronicle social change and the Harlem Renaissance’s fiery creativity, but when Alice’s story dominates the headlines, Marvel’s job is to cover it.
At first, Marvel and Roberta, in different decades, see Alice’s legal entanglements as tabloid sensations generated by a self-hating woman who failed to “pass.” But the deeper they investigate, the more they will learn about the reasons behind Alice Jones’s behavior and what the three women have in common. The Trial of Mrs. Rhinelander will bring to light stunning truths that will force these women to confront who they are and who they can be in a world that is all too quick to judge.
“Denny S. Bryce had me on the edge of my chair. … Not only a riveting novel but also a profound lesson in the fluidity of racial identity.”—Victoria Christopher Murray, New York Times bestselling author of The Personal Librarian
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“A gripping story of love and power, class bigotry and the traumas of racial passing…a front-row seat to the scandalous Rhinelander divorce that rocked New York high society in the 1920s...Book clubs will devour Ms Bryce’s latest page-turner.”
— Barbara Claypole White, author of The Perfect Son
“Bryce had me on the edge of my chair…Not only a riveting novel but also a profound lesson in the fluidity of racial identity.”
— Victoria Christopher Murray, New York Times bestselling authorBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Denny S. Bryce is an award-winning and bestselling author of historical fiction, including Wild Women and the Blues. She is also an adjunct professor in the MFA degree program at Drexel University, a book critic for National Public Radio, and a member of the Historical Novel Society, Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and Tall Poppy Writers.
Joniece Abbott-Pratt has narrated many audiobooks for children, young adults, and adults. She has won several AudioFile Earphones Awards and in 2021 was a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for Best Fantasy Narration. She earned an MFA degree in acting from the University of Iowa and has performed on regional theater stages across the country, including the Public Theater in New York City. She has also appeared on television shows, including The Good Fight, Law and Order: SVU, Luke Cage, and Orange Is the New Black, and has voiced commercials and projects for US Bank, Johnson & Johnson, and others.
Zura Johnson is a classically trained stage actor. She has performed in stages from her childhood home in California to the East coast, and all the way to Singapore. She has now worked in theater and as a voice actor for more than twenty years. She holds an MFA from the Old Globe Theatre and the University of San Diego.