Laura Moriarty is one of my favorite authors, but I was a little worried about the historical fiction aspect of this one. Because I knew so little about Louise Brooks, I spent less time than I usually do wondering what’s real and what isn’t. The book is much more about “The Chaperone,” Cora Carlisle, and her quest to learn about her own history and create happiness in her future, than it is about Louise.

Cora is a complex character, wrestling with many controversial issues of the era, including prohibition, racism, birth control, and homosexuality. Her story was riveting all by itself. I’ve been mulling over whether the book was better or worse for insinuating Louise Brooks into the story, and I can’t decide either way.

Most of the book takes place in the 1920s, but flashes back to Cora’s childhood and then zips through the last 50 years of her life, also continuing to follow the trajectory of Louise’s life. Great sense of time and place (both Kansas and New York City). I didn’t love The Chaperone the same way I loved Moriarty’s first three novels, but it was still way above average -- I intended to take this book on vacation, but finished it before it ever got near the suitcase.