The Trial of Mrs. Rhinelander - Denny S. Bryce - ★★.½

AUTHOR: Denny S. Bryce

NARRATORS: Chanté McCormick & Joniece Abbott-Pratt.

GENRE: Historical Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: July 23, 2024

RATING: 2.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A historical fiction based on the actual Rhinelander vs. Rhinelander case of 1925. I loved the historical details, but some writing choices didn’t work for me. Don’t expect a legal drama because of the title and blurb, else you will be disappointed.

Plot Preview:

1924. New York. Alice Jones, born to working class English immigrants, believes that she has found true love with the wealthy real-estate scion Leonard ‘Kip’ Rhinelander, four years her junior. Alice considers herself “white”, so when, after their elopement, Kip’s parents threaten to cut him off from his inheritance for marrying a coloured woman, Alice is stunned. As events continue to spiral, Alice finds herself in a court battle against her new husband.

1943. Roberta is an ambitious journalist. When she is given the task of speaking to her estranged aunt Alice and getting the inside scoop about the latest development in the Rhinelander family saga, Roberta is initially hesitant. But for her job, she goes ahead with the interaction, and finds herself learning more about Alice and what happened in the 1920s.

The story comes to us in the first-person perspectives of Alice and Roberta from two timelines.

I was not aware of the Rhinelander vs. Rhinelander case, so when I saw the blurb mention that this book is based on a pathbreaking legal case, I had to go for it. However, I have mixed feelings about the execution.

It was enlightening to read about people’s thinking and social attitudes in 1920s New York, especially their attitude towards coloured people. In fact, some of it is so outrageous that it might have felt far-fetched if this were ordinary historical fiction rather than being a story based on facts. The author’s research into the trial and the 1920s setting is visible.

I had assumed this to be a story of a Black/mixed race woman ‘passing’ as white because of her lighter skin tone. So I was surprised to see that Alice, and her entire family (her white mom, her mixed-race dad, and her two sisters), thought of themselves as ‘white’ (after all, the girls had ‘barely a drop of coloured blood’ in them), and they didn’t even consider the idea that they were ‘passing.’ This brought an unexpected dimension to the book. After all, it cannot be called a novel of "passing" as the family isn’t technically “passing”.

Now to the flip side.

Roberta’s timeline begins excellently with a clear intro about her ambition and spunky attitude. However, her role in the story is mainly to ask questions to Alice, who then provides answers and fills in the gaps left by the 1920s timeline. There is barely anything about Roberta’s life, and except for one passing mention of the Pearl Harbor attacks, nothing about the events of 1943 except what concerns Alice. It is a timeline curiously bereft of descriptions and era-setting.

The character development is quite flat. The writing is clearly tilted in favour of Alice, even before we hear Kip’s thoughts or Roberta’s inquiry. Alice isn’t a likeable character, so it is tough to sympathise with her situation. But even this complexity is presented in a fairly shallow approach that tells us the whats but doesn’t dig into the psyche of the whys. Roberta’s opinion of Alice swings randomly from supporter to opponent. Kip never becomes a well-defined character, though his role was vital. The secondary characters are even more vaguely sketched. Some of these issues could have been sorted had the writing been in third person.

As Roberta and Alice both are in their early twenties in their respective timelines, their thoughts and actions have a strong YA feel to them. This might not bother readers who enjoy YA, but I found their repetitive thoughts, lengthy inner monologues, and self-centred approach towards life somewhat annoying.

The details of the physical intimacy were a bit beyond what I prefer in historical fiction. As I read this as a historical legal drama and not a historical romance, this content annoyed me.

The biggest disappointment to me is the complete lack of courtroom scenes. For a book based on a real-life trial and with a title mentioning the word ‘Trial’, I had expected a nail-biting legal drama. However, the trial stays conspicuously off the page. We hear the development of the case and all related proceedings through later conversations between the key characters, and a few times, from small excerpts of newspaper articles that appear before a few chapters.

The title itself is misleading. The trial referred to by the titular "Trial" begins only around the 70% mark. There are actually two trials, one in each timeline, but we don’t see the glimpse of the inside of the court in either, so this doesn’t make any difference to our experience. The blurb is also inaccurate, as it assigns reporter Marvel Cunningham a prominent role, though she is just one of the secondary characters.

As we learn all key plot developments through the dialogues, and both perspectives are written in first person, we effectively get a whole load of first-person rambling. Even introductions of new characters are done through odd dialogues that leave us wondering why they are giving out their bio in between an interaction. Also, because of this writing decision, the passage of time within each narrative isn’t always clear.

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at 9 hrs 16 min, is narrated by Joniece Abbott-Pratt and Chanté McCormick. With two first-person character perspectives, it helps to have one narrator each for Roberta and Alice. The narrator for Roberta was fine. But the one who voices Alice didn’t voice intense emotions such as crying well as she read even those sentences in the same tone as the rest. The rest of her performance was good.

There was no author's note in my ALC, so I am unsure if the final print copy includes one. I sure would have appreciated an update from the author about her writing choices. Such stories always need a word from the author.

All in all, I liked the potential of the story more than the execution itself. I don’t regret reading this, but I did want a legal drama, so my overall feelings are muted.

Still recommended, but not with gusto. The book might appeal to historical fiction readers who would enjoy details of a real-life scandal of the 1920s. This isn’t for those who seek a courtroom drama.

Do note that the language is authentic to the times, so there are many offensive racist slurs in this book.

2.5 stars, rounding up wherever applicable for the historical insights and the audiobook.

My thanks to Recorded Books for providing the ALC of “The Trial of Mrs. Rhinelander” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.