The End of the Vodka: A Frida Kahlo Mystery

By Oscar de muriel

Based loosely on historical events, Frida Kahlo sets out to uncover why Dorothy Hale committed suicide in 1938, only to find herself investigating a murder

In 1938, actress, dancer and socialite Dorothy Hale plunged to her death from the sixteenth floor of her apartment building in New York. Days later, her estranged friend Clare Luce had a chance meeting with Frida Kahlo at which Clare asked the artist to paint Dorothy’s portrait. Determined to better understand her subject, Frida began to dig into the details of Dorothy’s life and stumbled into a tangle of secrets she could never have anticipated: political intrigue, espionage and counter espionage, and blackmail.

In 1940, Clare Luce caught the eye of a woman across the crowded restaurant of the Parisian Ritz: Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor and notorious Nazi sympathizer. Clare was there for a reason. So was Wallis. And as the two women spoke, there was one name that hung heavily in the air between them: Dorothy Hale. Because Dorothy didn’t slip and fall. She was murdered. And the same question lingers on everybody’s lips: why?

Between them, Clare and Frida paint a portrait of a woman quite unlike the one presented by history of a waifish dancer fallen victim to the ravages of Hollywood’s golden age – the truth is something much more sinister.