Behind the Story: The Stolen Queen

Exploring the inspiration and writing process for Fiona Davis’ latest release

I love historical fiction, so it’s no surprise that Fiona Davis has become an author I enjoy. Davis, whose 2017 release The Address we reviewed here, sets most of her novels in New York City during the Gilded Age — but the stories also feature a more modern-day storyline that intersects with the historical one. 

If you know me well, you know that’s a storytelling device I deeply love. 

So, when I found out Davis released a new book, The Stolen Queen, earlier this month, I had to know more about it. Let’s go behind the story on The Stolen Queen and learn more about Davis’ latest book! 

What is The Stolen Queen about? 

The Stolen Queen, like most of Davis’ novels, spans two time periods. The book follows Charlotte Cross, an anthropology student on a dig in Egypt in 1936, and Annie Jenkins, a young woman working for a former editor of Vogue in New York City in 1978. The action centers on the “party of the year,” the Met Gala that Annie’s boss is organizing. On the night of the Gala, the museum’s most valuable piece in the Egyptian collection goes missing, and Annie and Charlotte, now a curator at the museum, must combine forces to locate the artifact. 

Where did the idea for The Stolen Queen come from? 

In a Jan. 9 episode of the podcast “Totally Booked with Zibby,” Davis said the idea for The Stolen Queen began with an article. “The idea for this book actually began with an article in the New York Times about the Met Gala in 2018 when Kim Kardashian showed up in this beautiful gold dress … and she stood next to this sarcophagus the Met had just acquired the year before for $4 million dollars,” Davis recalled. Kardashian was photographed next to the artifact, which was covered in gold, “just as she was,” Davis said. The photo went viral — so much so that a smuggler who had robbed the sarcophagus saw it, remarked to an undercover agent that he hadn’t gotten paid, and, long story short, it turned out the artifact’s export papers had been forged. The Met then returned the artifact to Egypt. “I just thought, ‘What a weird mix of pop culture and ancient art all embodied in one building — and what a fun thing to try to explore!” Davis said. 

In an interview with Book Notions, Davis says she was also inspired in part by Lynee Olson’s book Empress of the Nile, about a young woman who is working as an archaeologist in the early 1900s in Egypt. “I knew I wanted to show her both as a young woman and as someone who’s older, so in 1978 she’d be 60, which was a great year for the Met Gala … so it made perfect sense.” 

The Met is a primary character in this novel. Where did Davis get her information about the inner workings of the museum? 

Davis first reached out to the Met’s communications department, she recounted in the podcast episode with Zibby Owens. They gave her a behind-the-scenes tour, and she conducted numerous interviews with all levels of Met staffers, from docents to security guards and curators, including people working there today and in the 1970s. “It was just a deep dive into what is almost like a little city here in New York City,” Davis said. 

How long did it take to research and write The Stolen Queen? 

In her interview with Book Notions, Davis said the novel took about a year and a half to research and write. “The first three or four months were all research, learning everything I could about what it was like to work on a dig in 1930 Egypt and what the Met Gala of 1978 — led by the iconic Diana Vreeland — was all about,” Davis said. Davis also took a trip to Egypt so she could visit Cairo and the Valley of the Kings and see the Pyramids. 

Want to learn more? 

Check out these interviews we consulted for this installment of “Behind the Story.” 

• Jan. 9, 2025, episode of “Totally Booked with Zibby,” formerly “Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books”

• Behind the Book interview, Book Notions 

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