Unraveling ‘The Stolen Queen’: Fiona Davis on Mystery, Egypt, and the Met

Fiona Davis’s eighth novel follows a narrative that moves through different time periods to explore a mystery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The story draws on real-life inspirations for the characters Charlotte and Annie and suggests an alternative perspective of viewing the Met as a collection of stories rather than merely objects. Additionally, her website features a museum scavenger hunt related to Egyptian artifacts mentioned in the book.

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Transcript for The Girlfriend Book Club’s Fiona Davis author talk on “The Stolen Queen”
Filler words have been removed for clarity

Shelley Emling: Welcome to The Girlfriend Book Club’s monthly discussion for May. I’m Shelly Ling, the Executive Editor of The Girlfriend Newsletter. I’m also the moderator of the Girlfriend Book Club, and this month we set a record. You all chose the New York Times bestseller, The Stolen Queen, by Fiona Davis as our May book pick.

And you all may not know this, but Fiona Davis. This is her third time with us; no other author has hit that milestone. We’ve had, I think, Marie Benedict and Kristen Hannah on with us twice, but this is Fiona’s third visit to The Girlfriend Book Club. So we’re so thrilled to welcome Fiona. So welcome.

Fiona Davis: Thank you. I am so honored to have a triple play. I love it.

Shelley Emling: And I wanted to mention the two other books that we, The Girlfriend Book Club, picked from yours: The Spectacular and The Lions of Fifth Avenue. And so now we have The Stolen Queen.

Fiona Davis: Oh, this is so exciting. This is thrilling.

Shelley Emling: This book is a mystery at The Metropolitan Museum of Art that traces back to Ancient Egypt. It was a page-turner. Everybody said it’s one of the things, everybody’s a big fan of yours. 110,000 members of The Girlfriend Book Club said this was their favorite book of yours. So that must be thrilling. And would you agree that this is the best book of all the ones you’ve written, seven or eight novels?

I can’t remember now. This is number eight. Yeah, this is number eight. What would you say when people say this is your best book?

Fiona Davis: Yeah, it’s a really good question. It differs from the other books in that it goes outside New York City. All my other books just stay in New York, so the writing had more challenges. The structure presents more challenges, so it’s a little more complicated, and I also had more time with it. So, I think all of those things add up to make a better book, and hopefully, going forward, it’ll just get better and better.

Shelley Emling: So, how long did it take you to write this?

Fiona Davis: A couple of years, a couple of years and a half, two years. So, longer than you, you typically take on a book. Yeah. It was a year’s worth of books early on, which was great. It was terrific in getting out there, meeting readers and building up a backlist. But now I just need a little more time between touring and writing.

Shelley Emling: Okay. Yeah. So yeah, and it took longer to write this. So many people comment about Charlotte and Annie being such great female characters, and I think I’ve seen you interviewed before where you said Charlotte’s about 60 years old in the book, and Annie, of course, is around 19.

So what, where did you base these two off of? Any other real-life women, or why was it essential for you to bring in a 60-year-old and a 19-year-old together?

Fiona Davis: Sure. I’m 58, and I feel like our age, 58, 60, 62, are a little bit underrepresented as the heroine in a book. They tend to be supporting characters, so I wanted to make her someone who’s lived, had an interesting life, had some wonderful things, and had some tragedies. And was a really fully fleshed person out there, trying to make it in a world where it’s not easy, especially as an associate curator at The Met. And then I thought for her foil, it would be really fun to make someone who is her complete opposite, right? So Charlotte is very qualified. She works as an associate curator and is good at her job.

She does all the work and gets none of the glory, but that’s the whole other thing. And so I thought it’d be fun to pair her up with Annie, a 19-year-old overeager unqualified assistant to The Met Gala, which is about as far from the Egyptian Wing as you could get at The Met in terms of what it’s all about.

Shelley Emling: So I know you got inspiration for each of your books from a building in New York City this time. Of course, it’s The Met. I know you live in New York City. Were you a fan of The Mets? Long before you wrote this book, did you often go a living there or what?

Fiona Davis: Yeah, I’m lucky to live across the park from The Met, so jumping on a bus is really easy. And there you are, and there are so many, I think there are 18 or 19 different departments, so there’s always something to explore. There’s the Arms and Armor section and the Egyptian Wing. Of course. It’s just an incredible building. But to be honest, I was completely intimidated by the idea of setting anything at The Met because it’s so big. I didn’t know where to begin.

Shelley Emling: How do you decide on a building to focus on that inspires you? I know you’ve, gosh, what else have you, it’s what I was gonna say, the Barb Ison Hotel, is that correct? Yep.

Fiona Davis: Yep. The Barb Ison. The Chelsea Hotel. Yeah. Chelsea

Shelley Emling: Hotel. What is it about? Do you find the building first and it inspires you to write a novel, or do you find the story first and then the building to match it?

Fiona Davis: No, I always start with the building, and I think that comes from being a former journalist. I need the historical facts. I need to do that research. I need to be inspired by real events and real people. Then, I use all that research as scaffolding and layer fictional characters and stories over it. So I tend to start with the building.

Shelley Emling: But I believe with this particular novel, and correct me if I’m wrong, you, you saw a New York Times article that kind of got your wheels turning. Is that true?

Fiona Davis: Yeah, that was the trigger. So I was just doing initial research. I was just putting my toe in the water.

I wasn’t ready to commit. Then I read an article in the New York Times about the 2018 Met Gala and how Kim Kardashian went. She wore this gold, glittery, tight dress. At some point in the night, she posed next to this gold, glittery sarcophagus that The Met had just bought, I think four years before, for $4 million.

Shelley Emling: Oh my gosh.

Fiona Davis: And it was an incredible image, and it went viral, of course, to the point that the Jordanian smuggler who’d stolen the sarcophagus complained to an undercover informant that he’d never gotten paid. And this got back to the Manhattan DA’s office as a whole unit on stolen art, and they did some digging.

They found that the papers had been falsified, and the Met was forced to return the sarcophagus. And that’s where I thought, okay, the Met Gala and ancient Egypt are two completely different pop cultures, and the other is ancient art embodied in this building. So that would be my way in.

And once I saw that, I got really excited.

Shelley Emling: So that’s what led you to connect the dots with that story, with The Mets and go from there. Have you ever been to a MET Gala or would you wanna go to a MET Gala?

Fiona Davis: No, I did some digging about the Met Gala to learn its history. It turns out it started in 1949 as a ladies’ luncheon. Eventually, Deanna Reeling got involved, and she, of course, is in the book. I turned it into the party of the year to the point that, now, back then, a ticket cost $50. Today, a single ticket to the MET Gala costs $75,000. Oh my gosh. Which is why I did not go,

Shelley Emling: I did not know that.

Fiona Davis: As you mentioned, this is the first book that takes the reader outside of New York City and to Egypt.

Shelley Emling: So what was that like for you? I’m guessing you had to go to Egypt and do some research. Why did you decide that taking the reader outside of New York City in this book was important?

Fiona Davis: Yeah. I had read this wonderful biography of an archaeologist named Christian de Roche. She was a French woman who was incredible and led an incredible life. It’s called Empress of the Nile, by Lynn Olson. It’s a highly recommended nonfiction account of this woman’s life, and it discusses her as an archeologist in her thirties.

Working on a dig in Egypt as the only woman, I was so entranced by that idea and that time period that I thought I wanted to include it in the book. And so that will be Charlotte as a young woman. And then that meant I had to go because I couldn’t. I find I need to get. Space. I need that spatial orientation to be able to talk about it.

So, for example, going to the pyramids and seeing how the sunlight hits them as it’s rising and how they turn pink or how in the afternoon the wind picks up and the sand covers the sun, and everything turns this weird orange color. And what the food was like and what it’s like to crawl into a tomb, pretty much. Because the openings are so small, it opens up to this incredible, painted, beautiful room. I felt like I had to be there to bring the reader to Egypt in the book.

Shelley Emling: How long did you spend in Egypt? It was about two weeks. Two weeks. Fantastic. So I’m just looking at my notes here a little bit. I also read somewhere that you said you used to be a journalist. I think you were an actress at some stage. And I saw you quoted somewhere saying everybody should consider changing careers every 10 years. Is that what you’ve done? I imagine

Fiona Davis: I have. I have. So I went to New York after college, worked as an actress, and did some really fun things. A couple of Broadway shows, some off-Broadway, and off-Broadway regional theater. Commercials, soap operas, that kind of thing. It was so much fun. But then I realized I was getting a little older in my twenties, late twenties, and just wanted more control over my life, right? And so I went and took a Myers-Briggs test, which is supposed to tell you what to do and what you should be, and I filled it out and went back the next day, and they said, Oh, we studied your answers. And you should either be a journalist or a cop.

I was like, "That’s easy." And this was before the internet, really. So I thought, okay, I’ll apply to Columbia Journalism School, one of the best in the country. Luckily, I got in and then just started on a whole new trajectory. About 10 or 15 years after that, I had an idea for my first book, which came from an article idea. And then suddenly, I switched again. Yeah, I think you make a big change every 10 years, and then you eventually end up where you should be.

Shelley Emling: Your first book that knocked it out of the park was the Dollhouse. Correct?

Fiona Davis: Yes.

Shelley Emling: Did you expect it to be such a big hit and to have such success right from the get-go?

Fiona Davis: It was funny. It was this little book that could, and it came out and did, surprisingly. I think it surprised everybody— how it did. And people started recommending it. Word of mouth, of course, is so important and so powerful. And so by the time the paperback was ready, my publisher said, “Oh, we want to send you on a tour, which is unusual.” Yeah.

For a paperback. And I hadn’t done one for the hardcover. And then it just was a slow build, and I think that was [00:10:00] really helpful. If I were asked to go and talk at a library. Early on, I would say yes. So I think I talked in every library in Long Island, and it was just a matter of wanting to connect with readers and build up readership.

And that’s what’s so powerful and important to me. Now, I am attending events and having all these readers there who’ve been with me since the beginning.

And just what a wonderful position that is to be in. I’m very lucky.

Shelley Emling: You definitely have a loyal fan base. That’s for sure. So I actually have some questions from the audience. They wanted to know about you, and you discussed your research process. They wanted to know, do you? Set a deadline for yourself. Do you write the outline first? Do you get up every morning and make sure you write for four hours a day? What goes into your writing process when doing a book like this?

Fiona Davis: My parents are both engineers, so it’s pretty organized here. I tend to do all that research. It takes about three to four months. There, I’m just digging into everything I can about the building, the period, and the people and filling my brain with everything I can.

And at a certain point, the first sentence tends to come to me, or the characters tend to emerge and ideas for the plot. And then I know it’s time to figure out the plot, which I do. I plan it out in advance, especially if there are multiple timelines, which there are in this book or multiple points of view.

I have to figure each one out very carefully. And the trick is that there’s always a mystery to be solved in my books, ‘cause I love a page-turner. Yeah. And so I need to be very careful what I give away and what timeline if, ‘cause if I screw up something too early, it’ll screw up the other timeline completely.

And so that takes a couple of weeks. But then once I’ve done that, I have a roadmap. I always joke that during those two weeks that I’m blending the two timelines, I’m drinking a lot of wine at night ‘cause it’s the only way to make it through, my head is hurting by the end of the day. But then I have this whole roadmap that I follow, and I do about a thousand words a day, and I find I can do a first draft in about three or four months.

Shelley Emling: Wow. Do you know the ending when you start? I do; I tend to know the twists. There’s a really fun twist in this one, which I very much enjoyed at The Met Gala. I love unexpected surprises, and I love the reader to feel like the ending is both inevitable and surprising and satisfying, right?

Fiona Davis: In a way. But I don’t like to tie everything up in a pretty bow. And so it’s a matter of working toward that ending.

Shelley Emling: So, did you do, would you write the one timeline first and then? Then the other one, and then blend them. So, one, spend all your time on one and then switch to the other one?

Fiona Davis: I do tend to; this book was a little different ‘cause it’s a little more blended. But generally, I will do the older timeline first, because that tends to be longer and then the new one. If I remember correctly, I went chronologically in this book because there were two different points of view in the first, and throughout the book. But then in the beginning, you have Young Charlotte, Old Charlotte, and Annie, right? And then those merge, and you just have Charlotte and Annie, but back in Egypt. So yeah, there was a little. It took a while to figure out the structure of this book and to make it work, and I relied on a couple of serious author friends to help me through that phase.

Shelley Emling: I always ask authors what was the most challenging character, scene, or chapter in the book. Is there something more challenging to write about than the rest of it?

Fiona Davis: Yeah, I would say there are a couple of pretty harrowing scenes in the book. We won’t give anything away, or should we? I don’t know.

Shelley Emling: Most, I think, everybody’s probably read it. Have you read it by now?

Fiona Davis: The scene on the Nile was very hard to write. It’s a really brutal scene for a mother to go through, I think, but hopefully, that does pay off in the end. Also, the one scene that I really enjoyed writing was the Met Gala, when everything goes wrong, and I had to figure out, okay, I need a diversion for The Met Gala because that’s when the object gets stolen, when the stolen queen gets stolen. And so I thought, what’s the worst thing that could happen at a costume exhibit? And then I had this idea and thought, oh yeah, that’s gonna be fun. And I could not wait to get to that scene.

Shelley Emling: How did you research the Met Gala itself? Did you like, read every article that’s ever been written about The Met Gala.

Fiona Davis: I’m very lucky. And the Met has a museum inside it. Oh. And so there I could look at press clippings, I could look at. Catalogs, I could look at, photographs, so I could basically recreate the Met Gala exhibit from 1978. Pretty much so, there were stuffed peacocks. She pumped perfume into the exhibit hall. Deanna Rein made that decision. And so what you’re reading in the book is what happened because of the wonderful archives at The Met.

Shelley Emling: Who were the big stars that attended the 1978 Met Gala?

Fiona Davis: It was Diana Ross, Mick Jagger, and Jackie O, who I think was also there. So it was very star-studded by then. It was starting to really chug along as the party of the year,

Shelley Emling: So, another reader wanted to know if there are any plans to continue Annie’s story in any way?

Fiona Davis: That’s a great question. I hadn’t thought of that, but I would. I think that’s a really fun idea because I think she’s off to the races. In the book, Annie is a parentified child, so she has to take care of her mother, who is a former model and very needy. Throughout the book, I wanted Annie to look for ways to be a woman, looking for mentors to show her the way, because her mother is useless, right? And so there’s Deanna Reland, and then Charlotte steps in, and she’s a very unwilling mentor. But I think now, once she’s reached a certain point, she will lead a very exciting life. Yeah, you never know. I think that’s a great idea.

Shelley Emling: Yeah. And somebody asked, What influenced you to set this in 1978? But that was really the newspaper clip, right?

Fiona Davis: It was a matter of reading that book about being an archaeologist in the 1930s. Okay. And then doing the math and figuring out, okay. Then she’d be 60, around 78. And that would work well. And I realized it would also work well because the Temple of Denver, which is where the Met Gala is held every year, basically turns it into a huge disco

Fiona Davis: That had just been installed in September of 78. And then the King Todd exhibit was about to open in December of ’78. And my book takes place in November, when the Met Gala was held that year. And that is nice because that King Todd exhibit was a huge blockbuster, and it puts so much pressure on my characters because they’re not only doing their jobs, they’re prepping for this major exhibit.

Shelley Emling: It seems like all your books feature really resilient, fierce, feisty, strong women. I assume you do that on purpose and will keep doing it.

Fiona Davis: Yeah. I especially like an older lady who’s tough and says what she thinks. I think that they’re just, I’m using them to express myself, I think, ‘cause I’m such a people pleaser and a good girl. But there’s something wonderful. Write characters who are tough. Say what they think and are not afraid. And also, whenever I’m doing that research, I always uncover these women who are these unsung heroes of the past, like Christianity, Roche Noble Court, who should be lauded and have done these incredible things that many people don’t know about until someone like Lynn Olson writes the book on her.

Shelley Emling: So, here are just a few more things. Are there any authors’ books from this past year or so that you have particularly loved or that have inspired you? I know you have a lot of author friends. I think we’ve talked about this before. And I think you’ve said that. Writers, it’s a very welcoming community. I guess maybe, surprisingly to some of us, authors are friends and support each other with their different pieces of work. Is that true?

Fiona Davis: Yeah, I think it has to do with historical fiction in particular because. People who read historical fiction are voracious readers. And so if they like one book, they’ll read the next one. It’s not like they’ll choose one over the other, so we’re not competing. If you like Marie Benedict’s books, you’ll probably like mine, and I am so happy to tell everyone in the world about Queens of Crime, her latest one. Lynda Cohen Loigman just wrote The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern.

Shelley Emling: Oh, I haven’t read it. Oh, it’s beautiful, funny, and smart. She’s one of my favorite writers and a very wonderful person. And then I, you know what I just read, which blew me away, was Broken Country. That is our book club pick for next month.

Fiona Davis: Oh, I will, I’ll be joining because I wanna hear her talk about it. I’ve listened to a couple of podcasts, and just the way she came about telling that story. And the beauty of that story is really something; it’s so compelling. So yeah, I’m on the Broken Country bandwagon.

Shelley Emling: It’s so funny, that’s our book pick for next month. That’s great. I love it. Is there anything you want people to take away from this, from The Stolen Queen? Is there anything you want people to remember or maybe study more after they’ve read it?

Fiona Davis: Yeah. I think the most important thing is to look at a big institution like The Met not as a collection of objects but more as a collection of stories. By examining the stories behind these objects, you learn so much more about the past, the people, the times, and the places that have been.

What’s fun about the book is that I used a number of items from The Met in it. There’s a broad necklace—it’s very important. The actual sculpture that the one that gets stolen is based on is at the museum. And so, on my website, there’s a scavenger hunt that lists all of the objects mentioned as well as the galleries where you can find them.

If you go to The Met, feel free to bring that, and you can see the actual objects that made it into the book and were so inspirational in its writing. That’s fantastic.

Shelley Emling: So just two or three more things. What are you working on now, if not the continuation of Annie’s story? Are you working on another book right now?

Fiona Davis: I am. I’m working on a book set at the oldest house in Manhattan, now a museum, and no one has heard of it. It’s called the Morris Jumel Mansion. It’s up on a hundred 60th. It’s this beautiful house. It looks like it belongs in Virginia. It’s got these white columns.

It’s this mansion with gardens all around it. It’s beautiful. Oh, and it was the headquarters for George Washington during the Revolutionary War. And then in the 18th century, a woman named Eliza Jumel bought it, and she’s the book’s focus. She was born the daughter of a prostitute in Rhode Island. She served in the workhouse as an indentured servant. Then, she moved to New York and became the richest woman in the city because she was skilled at real estate.

Shelley Emling: So, how did you come across that building?

Fiona Davis: I have known about it for a long time. The minute I first came to New York, I heard about this old mansion in upper Manhattan, and I had to go because I just love old buildings. And so I’ve had that percolating for some time. And when I talked to my agent and my editor and said, I know we focused on The Met and that, they don’t need me to write about them. They’re doing quite well, but there’s this little museum that no one has heard of, and I think it’s a great story. What do you think? And they both said, absolutely. Oh, wow. And I thought by writing it, we can shine a spotlight on the Morris-Jumel Mansion and get it some attention and love, which it deserves.

Shelley Emling: Perhaps we could expect that in another year or two.

Fiona Davis: Yes, it looks like January 27, but we’ll see.

Shelley Emling: Okay. Since you live in New York, it sounds like you really love New York City when you’re not writing, staring at buildings or looking around. What do you love to do in the city?

Fiona Davis: Oh, there’s so much. I love to go to the theater. As a former actress, I love seeing shows and going to music, and there’s always something going on. I remember one time my boyfriend and I went and caught this wonderful tap dancer that he knew. He was dancing in an office building on the second floor. There was this whole jazz scene going on in these really strange surroundings that you would never expect to be there. And that’s what I love about New York. There are always surprises. No, there’s always something cultural that will just catch your attention.

Shelley Emling: Yeah, I recently saw Sunset Boulevard. That was fantastic.

Great. Yes. Oh, there’s so much going on out there. It’s fantastic.

Shelley Emling: I just have to ask you, what soap opera were you on when you were younger? Because I literally watched every soap opera when I was in high school and college, imaginable.

Fiona Davis: Oh. I was in a recurring role and in “Another World." Right before it went off... I think I brought it down.

Shelley Emling: Oh, you didn’t. And finally, when you’re not writing or going to the theater, is there something you do with your girlfriends that you guys get together regularly? Do you like to go to Broadway shows together? Is there something at the fun that you really love to do with your girlfriends?

Fiona Davis: Oh yeah, there’s a whole crew of us from the old days who were all still friends, 30, 40 years later, really. And yeah. Yeah. And we just love to go out to dinner and talk into the night every night, meet at someone’s apartment, and catch up. Yeah, it’s just something special about people who’ve known you since you were 21.

There’s just something magical about that. We’re actually trying to plan a trip to Seattle, where another friend of ours has moved. Hopefully, that will happen soon.

Shelley Emling: Oh, that’s great. And I’m guessing you’re gonna not go back to The Met for a while. Have you met it out at this stage?

Oh no. I was just back there on Saturday with a really. There’s a book club from Boston. There are 40 to 50 of them, and every book, they rent a bus and come down, and we tour whatever. Location. They’ve been doing it since book number one, and I adore them.

So yeah, I was in the, met with 40 or 50 wonderful readers, prowled around, and had a great time.

Shelley Emling: Yeah. What a fun idea for a book club. That’s fantastic. So thank you so much, Fiona. Once again, our May Girlfriend Book Club pick is The Stolen Queen. If you haven’t read it, I think most everybody has, but if you haven’t, please do read it. It’s a page-turner; you won’t be able to put it down. I agree. I think it’s one of your best books for sure. But I also love The Spectacular and The Lions on of Fifth Avenue.

Fiona Davis: Thank you.

Shelley Emling: Thank you, everybody. That’s watching. Please stay on the book club page because I’ll be posting some conversation starters so that you guys can talk about what you loved about the book.

As Fiona said, Broken Country is our book club pick for June, and the story she left behind is our book Club Pick for July. The authors will join us on the third Tuesday of each month at 7:30 PM right here on this page. So have a good night, everybody. Thank you so much, Fiona.

Again, well done. I’m so proud of you and so pleased for you. Thanks for joining us again for the third time.