The Stolen Queen is the story of Charlotte Cross spanning several decades. In the beginning it alternates between the 1930s when she was in Egypt on an archeological dig an the 1970s when she works at the Met Museum in New York. We also meet a teenage girl named Annie. Their stories intertwine when Annie gets a job at the Met Museum. Charlotte has a sad past from her time in Egypt that catches up to her in an exciting way towards the end of the book. I liked all the characters but I especially loved Annie. I loved seeing how she grew out of her shell and found her own path. I loved the bits of Egyptian culture interspersed also.

4 1/2 stars
Her whole life Charlotte has been given to finding Egyptian treasures and proving her theory about a much maligned female pharaoh. When tragedy strikes ripping her husband and infant daughter away from her she turns her back on Egypt but not its treasures. Years pass and Charlotte is working for the Met and when a treasure is stolen right under their noses it will lead Charlotte and her new young ally back to Egypt to find the necklace and unearth the secrets of her past. Not only are we transported back to the golden age of Egyptian discoveries and the sometimes unsavory methods used to collect them but also behind the scenes in the 70's at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and one of its treasures Diana Vreeland creating the Met Gala the showstopper event it still is today. Fiona Davis once again shares her love of New York and invites us to love it as well. This is a must for historical fiction buffs as well as those fascinated by the world of stolen art/antiquities around the world and armchair Egyptologists. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

An intriguing novel about the early days of Egyptian exploration and the retrieval of Egyptian artifacts. Charlotte Cross, as a young researcher, is enamored of all things Egypt and has the opportunity to participate in an expedition that will change her life. Many years later, as a curator of the Met museum in New York, she comes upon an artifact that upsets her current world and she makes the return to Egypt after many years to resolve its mystery.
Davis is a master of historical fiction and this novel continues her tradition. But, at times, it becomes predictable and ends get tied up too abruptly.
Recommended for readers of historical fiction.

Fiona Davis delivers another fabulous story revolving around the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Egypt. Going between two time periods, the reader is put into a mystery, a love story, and the archaeological find of the century.

In my mind, Fiona Davis can do no wrong. The Stolen Queen is another home run by the author, and I loved that the setting was in Egypt.

Another amazingly well done book by Fiona Davis! While the book is historical fiction, it also has a bit of a mystery to it as well. It follows Charlotte during her time in Egypt as a young adult on a dig for the Met and then years later as a curator for the Met. During the Met gala an artifact goes missing that is tied to Charlotte’s past. She and Annie, who is a young woman helping with the gala, team up to find the stolen piece of art. There is so much more to Charlotte’s story and I was really captivated by her story. It touches on how difficult is was for a woman working in archeology in the 1930’s.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for the ARC of this book.

Fiona Davis is one of my favorite authors and The Stolen Queen is another exciting novel. I love it and can not wait until her next book!
Thanks,NetGalley for the opportunity to read this and review this book.

Fiona is an auto buy author for me! The spectacular is my favorite audiobook! This one was amazing too, I loved the story so much!

I always enjoy Fiona Davis’ work! She makes historical fiction very accessible and appealing. I love how she spins a special magic over the places of New York City. I recently also enjoyed Isabel Ibanez’s What the River Knows & Agatha Christie’s Death of the Nile. It was wonderful to explore the lands of Egypt again in this novel & still find something incredible to unearth (I think Charlotte would agree that there’s always something to uncover in Egypt’s mysterious lands). I appreciate that Charlotte eventually came to find what she was looking for in this novel (in more ways than one). I’d highly recommend giving this book your time.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced reader copy!

My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for an advance copy of this novel that looks at history, spectacles, legacies, legends, and how women through different stages of history have to deal with events.

I like to lose myself in a book, but I think I love to learn things from a book, especially if it is something I would never think of investigating for myself. Things like the Met Gala. I would have no interest in something involving rich people playing dress-up nor would I read a book devoted to something like that. As part of a story, a well told story,involving secrets, lies, curses and Egyptology and the legacy of museum theft, well I am going to learn a few things. And have a very good time doing so. Especially when the author is Fiona Davis. The Stolen Queen is a story of two women, both trying to make their way in the world at different times, who find themselves working together to solve a mystery, one that might be thousands of years old.

In the year 1936 Charlotte Cross is a young anthropology student who is offered the chance of a lifetime. A chance to work and learn on a anthropological dig at the Valley of Kings in Egypt. This is a huge chance and one that make a young lady's career, even in early part of the century. Things do not go well, leading to tragedy and heartbreak, and Cross vows never to return to Egypt. Annie Jenkins is a young girl in the most exciting and dangerous city in the world New York City in 1978. Jenkins has scored a job working on the premiere social event of the season, possibly the Met Gala. There Jenkins crosses paths with Charlotte Cross who works at the Metropolitan Musuem's Department of Egyptian Art, specializing in the life of Hathorkare a female pharaoh, who many consider a legend, or just a space filler for male pharaohs. On the night of the Gala, things go missing, a rare piece of art with ties to Hathorkare, and a curse that Charlotte Cross is more than familiar with. Jenkins and Cross must work together to find out what is going on, even if Cross must go back to the place she vowed never to return, Egypt.

Fiona Davis is a gifted writer able to write not only stories that hold the reader, but also teach the reader about the world that lies outside their purview. Davis creates characters that are seem real, dealing with real issues, and is able to mix these fictional characters with actual historical persons, and move the story along. Davis does not lecture or make it seem like oh I did all this research let me dump it on you, like some authors do. Davis takes her time, feeds the information when necessary and allows the characters to breathe, and develop. Davis does quite a bit of research, as shown in Davis's Author's Notes, and it is appreciated. The narrative is split between the two characters Cross and Jenkins, and both have different ways of looking at the world, and people, so the narratives are never confusing. Cross and Jenkins show their generational gap in different ways, which again helps move the story along.

Fiona Davis has written another strong book, one that fans will enjoy and one that new readers can easily get into, and discover a very rich reading history ahead of them. A writer who creates stories that enlighten and entertain are rare, especially writers this good. I look forward to the next Fiona Davis book.

The Stolen Queen is a dual timeline/dual narrative story about 2 women who live in NYC and work at the Met. Charlotte Cross is an Egyptologist, in her early 60s in 1978, but throughout the book are chapters about her time in Egypt as a young woman in 1936, working on a dig searching for remnants of the life of Hathorkare, a "lost" female pharaoh (this is a fictional pharaoh, loosely inspired by Hatshepsut). Annie Jenkins is a young woman, working as a waitress and maid, trying to make ends meet, while supporting her self-centered mother, when she lucks into a job as Diane Vreeland's assistant, helping to plan and execute the Met Gala. It's during the Gala, that things go awry and a piece of artwork from the Egyptian wing is stolen. Annie and Charlotte end up work together to investigate the theft.
Overall, I did enjoy this book, and how Charlotte and Annie both grew and developed as characters, working together to find the stolen artwork, while also helping Charlotte overcome her past trauma. That said, I felt like the idea that Charlotte was terrified to return to Egypt because of her past and the "curse" was only semi developed. Somehow, she just miraculously gets over it and takes charge, with little discussion of how she got past her fear. For someone who refused to go back to Egypt (as an Egyptologist) for 40 years, I think it would have been a bit more difficult of an undertaking. This is my only real criticism of the book, other than the ending felt rushed and a bit too "happy". It was a good bit of historical fiction, and I enjoyed learning about Egypt, and the cooperative process between Egypt and other countries with regards to sharing their antiquities.
Thank you to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

I have read a number of books by Fiona Davis and was excited to get her newest.

The Stolen Queen revolves around Egyptologist Charlotte who had gone on an archeological dig to Egypt when she was an undergrad. That was in 1936 and we see that part of her life through flashbacks and then in 1978 as an assistant curator at the MET in New York City. The dual timelines work together so well as we learn about the tragedy that changed Charlotte's life in 1936.

In the 1978 timeline, Charlotte's life collides with Annie, a young woman who is assisting with the MET Gala. We get a wonderful look into the world that these women inhabit, Davis' way of describing the places and emotions bring their lives to life. When an antiquity is stolen on the night of the gala, these two very different women come together to try to solve the mystery.

I was captivated by the first 2/3 of the book, a little less so when they go to Egypt. Some of what happened there was just too easily solved and even though it was mentioned more than once how the female Pharaoh had an easier time than women in the 1970's, it was a little too easy for them to get around and get help. I would have liked the climax to be a little more in depth and not wrapped up with a bow so quickly.

Overall, I really enjoyed the topic and the writing and recommend the book. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I really enjoyed this dual timeline narrative - one in the 1930s and the other in the 1970s - that focused on ancient Egypt. Both Charlotte and Annie's stories were compelling and made me want to know more. Fiona Davis does a fantastic job of bringing Egypt to life and made me feel I was there with the characters. There was obviously a great deal of research put into this and it shows. Highly recommend!

As an art historian who spends an inordinate amount of time in museums, especially The Met, I usually steer away from reading museum fiction. Too much 'Thomas Crown Affair!' But as a devoted reader of Fiona Davis's novels who gets happily lost in the worlds of women who left their mark on historic New York, I was all in on The Stolen Queen. Equal parts mystery, fashionable museum history, and adventure archaeology, 'The Stolen Queen' delivers Davis's signature deep dive into the inner lives of exceptional women characters who appreciate aesthetics as much as they do a death-defying professional challenge.

It always makes me happy to see a new book by Fiona Davis is coming into the world. As soon as I read about it, I went onto NetGalley to request a digital review copy. I read it quickly and yet I didn't want it to end, of course. Set at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, of course, reading this novel definitely made me want to go to the Met again. (To be honest, I've only been there once a few years ago for a special exhibit but I loved it!)

This time instead of meeting 2 characters from different times, we meet our main character as her younger self and in the present day. In the present day she is joined by a younger colleague thereby making the story have more immediacy for younger readers, I think.

Imagining the older character on a dig in Egypt was very exciting. And hearing about the King Tut exhibit when it came to the U.S. was also a fun bonus to the novel's action.

This is Fiona at her finest! The pacing was perfect, the characters and scenery rich, and the mystery unputdownable.

We follow the characters between the Met art museum in the 1970s when Egyptian art has been stolen and back to Egypt in the 1930s when the FMC is a budding archaeologist. It’s a dual timeline dual POV story about love, purpose, career goals, family, feminism, and of course, art. Ugh I loved it. This is a must read! The book comes out January 7, 2025. Get that pre-order in!!

Fiona Davis has written another winner! The story drew me in immediately and kept me going until the very end. I loved her characters, the settings, the Metropolitan Museum and Egypt and the dual timeline of the story. Bravo!

Fiona Davis can always be relied on for a rollicking good mystery with a little bit of romance and adventure sprinkled in. Here, she blends mystery with Egyptology and a very appealing protagonist. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, heightened by Davis’ attention to detail and darn good writing.

What a great book! Fiona Davis does not disappoint. Though I have never been one to be all that interested in Egypt/the antiquities, this book may have just changed that! The story is a dual timeline novel alternating between 1936 and 1978. Charlotte's story is told in both time periods. As a young woman, she was very interested in Egypt and even traveled to work on a dig as an 18 year old. What happened in Egypt during that time would change her life forever... and not in a good way. Meanwhile, in 1978, women's roles are changing and so are feelings about research norms, ethics about international relics/art/history, and more. Charlotte's life intersects while at work at the Met with a young woman, Annie, who is quite simply dealing with a lot. Throughout the book, we learn more of Charlotte's story and the two women become close... and even work together to solve a historical mystery surrounding a female Pharaoh, Hathorkare.

This book was so intriguing and deep. I loved the growth and passion these women showed, along with other supplemental characters. The Egyptian history and themes woven throughout were fascinating, especially considering the author's note at the end about her research process. This is a must read!

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this eARC. All opinions are my own.

The Stolen Queen was superb with Egyptian historical significance a delight. Set in 1936 and 1978, it lends itself to archeological data about mummies, burials, and discoveries tied into personal lives and revelations. This book is Fiona Davis rather best.