Title: The Stolen Queen
Author: Fiona Davis
Release Date: 01/07/2025
Format: eBook
Where to Buy: Bookshop
My Rating: 4.25/5
Synopsis
Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. But after an unbearable tragedy strikes, Charlotte knows her future will never be the same.
New York City, 1978: Eighteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for iconic former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who’s in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the “party of the year.” Though Annie soon realizes she’ll have her work cut out for her, scrambling to meet Diana’s capricious demands and exacting standards.
Meanwhile, Charlotte, now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met’s celebrated Department of Egyptian Art, wants little to do with the upcoming gala. She’s consumed with her research on Hathorkare—a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant.
That is, until the night of the gala. When one of the Egyptian art collection’s most valuable artifacts goes missing . . . and there are signs Hathorkare’s legendary curse might be reawakening.
As Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she’d never return: Egypt. But if they’re to have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past—which may mean leading them both directly into danger.
My Review
Full disclosure, I will pretty much read any and every single book that has to do with Egyptian archaeology. I have been obsessed with ancient Egypt since I was young and my grandmother traveled to see so many of the sites. The moment I saw a book that combined finding relics from an archeological dig and the Met Gala, I knew I needed to read it immediately. Unfortunately, this was backlisted quite a bit at my local library but it finally came in the other week and I almost immediately started it. I genuinely could not put it down. I finished it at about 2AM on day two. I only had a few regrets when my alarm went off at 7AM.
The Stolen Queen has three perspectives Charlotte in the thirties and seventies and Annie in the seventies. Fiona Davis did a really fantastic job of showing readers three very distinct points of view from both women characters. Charlotte’s story starts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art where she has worked for the past 30 or so years of her life after a mysterious event occurred in Egypt. She has worked very hard but hasn’t quite ascended the ladder of the Met like some have expected. This is because she is an egyptologist who seemingly is cursed, preventing her from ever stepping foot in Egypt again.
Meanwhile, Annie, a young woman from an unstable home gets the opportunity to help plan the Met Gala working for a former Vogue fashion director. It is Annie’s dream come true to be doing this work. The moment that got her the job was seeing Hathorkare’s broad collar and recognizing that it would be the perfect accessory for one of the costumes at the gala. This puts her directly against Charlotte, who believes the collar is a stolen artifact, one that she last saw on the night everything went wrong in Egypt.
The scenes that Davis created were lush and so realistic, I felt like I was in the Met watching the events transpire. Both Charlotte and Annie are in unfortunate personal situations. Charlotte is in a long term relationship with a gentleman whose daughter has just moved in. She and her partner are starting to drift apart. Annie, meanwhile, has a narcissist mother whose messes Annie must clean up. Annie works two jobs to make rent, while Mom bemoans the tragedy of aging in a modeling industry that only wants young. Annie is unknowingly seeking support, mentorship and a strong role model to follow.
I think what made this story so good is that setting aside the mystery of the pharoah’s curse, it is a very relatable tale. The story of two women just trying to navigate their way in the world while they are told to repress the things that make them special. Annie is looked down on because she is a working class woman who has strong shoulders and hands callused from work. Charlotte was a trailblazer in her field and experienced a terrible traumatic event in Egypt. But when she returned to the U.S. she was expected for forget everything that happened. This resulted in her not trusting anyone with the story of her time in Egypt.
I cannot recommend The Stolen Queen enough. The mystery scratched an itch that was needed but what truly captured me was the story of two strong women just trying to find their way forward having had very little support from loved ones.
