History is integral to the internal clockwork of The Lions of Fifth Avenue. Fiona Davis not only provides an intriguing glimpse into turn-of-the-century New York—its social and political movements—but she also deftly connects past and present as an interwoven series of events that inform and overlap each other. Timelines are almost irrelevant here as crimes are repeated, and ghosts from Sadie’s past return to help her solve a decades-old mystery. The common thread connecting the past and present is books, their magic, their allure, and their value, both financial and as platforms of knowledge. The “current” half of the novel is set in 1993—a pre-internet and pre-smartphone era—when books, the paper variety, were still a commodity worth stealing. Rare book theft still happens, but The Lions of Fifth Avenue considers books not only for their financial value but also as artifacts coveted for their sensory and aesthetic worth; such connoisseurs are dwindling in the wake of the digital revolution. Davis’s characters revel in the smell and feel of books, getting lost in their musty narratives.

History is also important in the way that it shapes the characters, particularly Laura, who is swept up in a tide of social change.