Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews

 

This review is going to contain very mild spoilers that are mostly mentioned on the back of the book jacket. WHO IS MAUD DIXON is a Patricia Highsmith-esque tale of stolen identity and opportunism. Maud Dixon is the best-selling author of a work of literary fiction called Mississippi Foxtrot, a tale of murder and obsession. Nobody knows who the author is, which means that his or her identity is the subject of much speculation among the literary crowd.

Florence, a young aspiring author in her mid-twenties, is one of these. She is a desperate social-climber with a wavering moral compass who wants to fit in to the upper-class elite of the New York literary scene, but no matter what she does, she looks like a hapless poseur. All of that changes when she's offered the opportunity to work with the real Maud Dixon as an assistant, which results in life lessons, writing lessons, and a spur of the moment trip to Morocco for book research.

Obviously, the real Maud Dixon is nothing like what Florence expected. But then-- Florence isn't exactly what she expected, either.

For about 50% of this book I was in love with it... and then it sort of fell apart, pacing-wise and character-wise. Let's just say there were some questionable decisions towards the end that had me rolling my eyes a little. I liked the Morocco portions a lot and I love a good mystery about writers who act crazy, but I just felt that things got a little too unbelievable and required too much suspension of disbelief. Was this book bad? No. I did enjoy it. It just didn't wow me like I wanted it to.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!

3 out of 5 stars