A trio of women wrestle with the consequences of their choices in Susan Meissner’s historical novel, A MAP TO PARADISE.

Set during the peak of the Hollywood blacklist, the book follows Melanie Cole, a naive young actress swept up in the era’s anti-communist witch hunts. After her studio-approved romance with an older, more worldly co-star taints her by association, Melanie retreats to an isolated home in Malibu, where she tries to avoid questions from both the press and government agents. The career she’s worked so hard to achieve is at a standstill, and the throngs of adoring fans “have evaporated as quickly as morning dew.”

Now, Melanie’s daily interactions are limited to brief conversations with her tight-lipped maid, a Polish refugee named Eva, and over-the-fence chats with her agoraphobic screenwriter neighbor, Elwood Blankenship. When Elwood abruptly stops appearing at his window, a restless Melanie begins to suspect that something is amiss and Elwood’s caretaker and sister-in-law, June Blankenship, is hiding something.

"Fans of old Hollywood glamour and drama will appreciate the book’s period setting and juicy story.... Meissner tackles big issues in A MAP TO PARADISE, including the lingering effects of trauma, the horror of domestic violence, and the pain of unrequited love."

Melanie’s instincts are correct. The devoted June is concealing important facts about Elwood and his condition, which are gradually revealed as Meissner peels back the layers of her character-driven story. And June isn’t the only one with secrets. Eva is not quite who she says she is. Her roots lie in Russia, though she has good reasons for never wanting to return to the country of her birth. Eva is no communist, but she knows that if the truth about her background comes out, it could spell more trouble for Melanie.

“They would discover who she really was and instantly assume the worst,” a wary Eva thinks. “Because that’s what people did.”

Fans of old Hollywood glamour and drama will appreciate the book’s period setting and juicy story. It shares the same DNA as classic melodramas of the 1940s and ’50s, with their stories of complicated women straining against circumstances beyond their control. Meissner uses the mystery of what happened to Elwood as a vehicle to explore the lives of women in mid-century America. Melanie, June and Eva are all running in one way or another from the past. Their regrets and missteps haunt them, in addition to hindering their fragile attempts at friendship. They are allies by circumstance, not natural inclination.

Meissner tackles big issues in A MAP TO PARADISE, including the lingering effects of trauma, the horror of domestic violence, and the pain of unrequited love. As a result, the book can feel overstuffed with ideas that could benefit from more room to breathe. The thorny political issues surrounding the blacklist are handled at arm’s length. Melanie can’t be a communist sympathizer because she has almost no political consciousness. She’s distressed at having been caught up in the Red Scare, but she gives little thought to either the motivations of her persecutors or whether it’s right for the government to target people because of their political beliefs.

Eva’s dramatic backstory is worthy of a novel of its own, but Meissner skims over major moments so quickly that it blunts their emotional impact. But her characters are nonetheless compelling, particularly Eva, who has created a shell around herself to cope with past trauma, and June, who longs for a time machine that will transport her to the past and allow her to rewrite the events of her life.

“So much about her life would’ve been different if she’d been tuned in to what destiny had been whispering to her back then and which she had ignored,” June laments when she ruminates over past regrets. But as Melanie, Eva and June come to accept, there’s no changing the past. The only thing to do is move forward as best you can, waiting for the next moment when life gives you a chance to seize what you want.