Genevieve Graham’s new dazzling novel set at an elegant hotel in Toronto in 1929, where a young chambermaid, a handsome waiter, and a murder that will reverberate for a century.

In 1929, Rosie Ryan wants nothing more than to escape poverty of The Ward, Toronto’s roughest neighbourhood, and become a chambermaid at the brand-new Dominion Hotel where secrets lurk behind every locked door. She meets Damien, a charming and ambitious waiter who promises her a better life- and adds him to the top of her list. The Dominion offers her a chance to do well, but behind the gleaming chandeliers and polished marble lurk dangerous secrets involving its most notorious guests, a wealthy gangster who’s about to profit from The Crash that will decimate the economy. When a friend is murdered, Rosie finds herself tangled in a web of betrayal- one that just might cost her everything.

Present City building inspector Bridget Kelly is assigned to scrutinize the recent renovations at the elegant old Dominion Hotel, a task she relishes as a lover of history and architecture, and that gets even better once she starts working with a brilliant and fascinating archivist. But when a routine inspection uncovers mysterious boxes, locked doors, and secret corridors, bringing to light a long-buried clue a decades-old murder, her inspection is thwarted, and threats rise round her on every side. Bridget soon realizes someone doesn’t want the truth to surface- and they’ll do anything to keep it buried.

The Chambermaid’s Key is a gripping dual-timeline novel about ambition, betrayal and the secrets that bind us across generations.

The Chambermaid’s Key by Genevieve Graham, Simon & Schuster, $13.99, 400 pages