The End of the Vodka

A Frida Kahlo painting, a scandal, a mystery … and secrets that threaten to change the course of history.

In 1938, showgirl-turned-socialite Dorothy Hale falls to her death from a Manhattan skyscraper. Her friend, writer and future diplomat Clare Boothe Luce, commissions Frida Kahlo to paint a memorial portrait.

Months later, while reporting from Europe for LIFE Magazine, Clare encounters the Duchess of Windsor in Paris and begins to see Dorothy’s death in a new light.

Meanwhile, in New York, Frida grapples with alienation, prejudice and estrangement from her husband Diego Rivera. As she works on her masterpiece, she, too, draws closer to the truth.

At the heart of this novel lies a mystery: was Dorothy’s death suicide or murder, and how does it connect to the forces shaping the twentieth century?