The Stolen Queen

The Stolen Queen (2025) is a historical novel by American novelist Fiona Davis. The novel features timelines from the 1930s and 1970s and settings in Egypt and the US. Davis’s previous novels, including The Spectacular (2024) and The Lions of Fifth Avenue (2020), are works of historical fiction set in New York City. Davis is known to use well-known New York City landmarks in her fiction, including the New York Public Library and Grand Central Terminal. The Stolen Queen is largely set in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In this setting, Davis explores themes of Complex Loyalties Between Mothers and Daughters, Negative Responses to Women’s Ambition, and Resilience in the Face of Personal Loss.

This guide refers to the 2025 Penguin Random House edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, child death, and gender discrimination.

Plot Summary

The novel alternates between two storylines set at different points: a period between 1936 and 1937 and several months in 1978. Charlotte Cross is an 18-year-old American woman who travels to Egypt in 1936 to participate in an archaeological expedition. During the expedition, Charlotte uncovers a new tomb, which contains a mummy that could potentially be Queen Hathorkare. Hathorkare was significant for ruling as a female pharaoh in ancient Egypt, although many historians in Charlotte’s era view her with suspicion and depict her in a negative light. During the project, Charlotte meets and falls in love with a young British archaeologist named Henry Smith. When she unexpectedly becomes pregnant, she and Henry decide to marry and stay in Egypt even though her parents strongly disapprove of this unconventional choice. Charlotte gives birth to their daughter, Layla, in 1937.

A few months after Layla’s birth, Henry abruptly tells Charlotte that they need to leave and return to the US. Charlotte is confused but thinks that the departure might be related to the increasing geopolitical tensions in the lead-up to World War II. Once Charlotte, Henry, and Layla are on board a boat sailing from Luxor to Cairo, she’s shocked to see that Henry has a priceless artifact with him: a gold collar necklace from Hathorkare’s tomb, which the Egyptian Museum had claimed as cultural property. The boat capsizes during a terrible storm. Charlotte survives the shipwreck, but Henry and Layla are never found and are presumed dead.

Charlotte returns to New York, where she gets a job as a curator in the Egyptian department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She grows her career, and by 1978, she is living a contented life with a new partner, Mark. Charlotte has also been working on an independent research project that could be groundbreaking in the field of Egyptology: She has evidence that Hathorkare was a respected and successful ruler whose legacy was largely erased and hidden because the subsequent king wanted to ensure that his son (not a female rival) inherited the throne. Charlotte is astonished when the gold collar necklace from the tomb of Hathorkare turns up at the Met: An anonymous donor has loaned it to the museum. Charlotte becomes obsessed with trying to find out the identity of whoever owns the necklace because she wonders if they could shed light on what happened to Henry and Layla after the shipwreck. Meanwhile, Charlotte gets to know Annie Jenkins, a young woman who has started working on the team planning the annual Met Gala.

On the night of the Met Gala, the folder containing all of Charlotte’s research into Hathorkare is stolen from her office. She also catches a glimpse of a thief stealing a priceless Egyptian artifact: a statue known as the Cerulean Queen. Charlotte and Annie try to pursue him, but the man gets away. Charlotte decides to travel to Egypt because the theft has made her more confused and concerned about the mystery of the gold necklace. She has learned that Leon Pitcairn, an archaeologist who was part of the same team as her and Henry and survived the same shipwreck, is working there, and she wants to question him. Annie insists on accompanying Charlotte to Egypt.

In Egypt, Charlotte and Annie uncover further evidence from Leon that Henry is alive; they also return to the tomb where Charlotte first found the gold necklace and uncover further evidence to suggest that it is the tomb of Hathorkare. Using the evidence, they confirm the identity of the mummy as Hathorkare. Charlotte and Annie also find the stolen Cerulean Queen statue: An Egyptian woman named Heba had smuggled it into an antiquities shop. In the shop, there is a framed photo of Heba’s daughter, whom Annie recognizes as Mona, a woman who works at the Met.

Annie and Charlotte return to New York and confront Mona; she confesses to everything. Mona is the daughter of Heba and Henry, although he was living under an alias. As a child, she discovered the gold collar necklace, which Henry had kept after the shipwreck. Eventually, she stole the necklace from her father because she became passionate about Egyptian artifacts being owned and displayed in Egypt. To gain access to steal the Cerulean Queen and return it to Egypt, Mona began working at the Met, donated the gold collar necklace, and then used a distraction and several accomplices to steal both the Cerulean Queen statue and Charlotte’s research file. Before she is arrested, Mona makes a cryptic comment about knowing where Layla (her half-sister) is.

After Mona and Heba are arrested, Henry comes to New York to reunite with Charlotte. He explains that he and Leon did steal the gold collar necklace: After the shipwreck, Henry believed that Charlotte and Layla had both perished. He built a new life with Heba and Mona. Annie has been thinking about Mona’s comment and realizes that Layla (now going by the name Fatima) is a woman who worked at a hotel in Cairo: Annie and Charlotte encountered Fatima during their visit. Charlotte and Henry contact Fatima to explain that they are her birth parents and await a response. Meanwhile, Charlotte has gotten her research back and made new discoveries, confirming her theory about Hathorkare’s reputation. She quits her job and moves back to Egypt to pursue research full-time.

Eventually, Fatima/Layla agrees to meet with Henry, Charlotte, and Annie. When they meet, Fatima explains her story: After the shipwreck, an Egyptian couple adopted her. As she grew older and became more curious about her history, she researched shipwrecks and eventually pieced together that Henry and Annie were her birth parents. However, she was hesitant to contact them after so much time had passed. By chance, she encountered Henry and Mona in Cairo one day and confided in Mona that she believed they were half-sisters. Fatima also saw Charlotte at the hotel but didn’t know how to approach her. While it was Mona’s spiteful comment that led Henry and Charlotte to Fatima, the family is happy to be reunited. The novel ends with Charlotte looking forward to a bright future working in Egypt and getting to know her daughter.