The End of the Vodka
Oscar de Muriel
25 June 2026
9781917569279
Demy Hardback, 336pp
Price: £16.99
A Frida Kahlo painting, a scandal, and secrets that threaten to change the course of history
In 1938, showgirl-turned-socialite Dorothy Hale falls from a Manhattan skyscraper. Her friend Clare Boothe Luce – writer, diplomat and rising political figure – commissions Frida Kahlo to paint a memorial portrait.
Months later, reporting from Europe, Clare encounters the Duchess of Windsor in Paris and begins to question what really happened that night. In New York, Frida, estranged from Diego Rivera, wrestles with betrayal, ambition and the demands of her art. As she works on the painting that will become one of her most unsettling, she edges closer to the truth.
At the heart of this novel lies a real-life mystery: was Dorothy Hale’s death an act of despair, or something far more dangerous, entangled with the power struggles shaping the modern world?
Author
Oscar de Muriel is a writer, translator, historian and violinist. He is the author of a widely acclaimed series of Victorian mysteries, longlisted for the Scottish Crime Book of the Year and shortlisted for the Historical Writers’ Association’s Gold Crown Award. He is currently collaborating with the Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera Anahuacalli Museums on a definitive book about Casa Azul, the home where Frida and Diego lived and worked. Born in Mexico City, he divides his time between Mexico city, Ribble Valley and Edinburgh.