The metropolitan affair /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A Booklist Top 10 Romance Novel of 2023

Bestselling author Jocelyn Green sweeps you away in a dazzling novel of secrets, betrayal, and romance within one of New York City's most esteemed museums.

For years her explorer father promised Dr. Lauren Westlake she'd accompany him on one of his Egyptian expeditions. But as the empty promises mounted, Lauren determined to earn her own way. Now the assistant curator of Egyptology for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lauren receives two unexpected invitations.

The first is her repentant father's offer to finally bring her to Egypt as his colleague on a new expedition. The second is a chance to enter the world of New York's wealthiest patrons who have been victims of art fraud.

With Egyptomania sweeping the city after the discovery of King Tut's tomb, Detective Joe Caravello is on the hunt for a notorious forger preying on the open wallets of New York's high society. Dr. Westlake is just the expert he needs to help him track the criminal. Together they search for the truth, and the closer Lauren and Joe get to discovering the forger's identity, the more entangled they become in a web of deception and crime.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

It's 1925 in New York City, and flappers are out dancing, speakeasies are getting raided, and interest in Egyptian art is at an all-time high, thanks to recent breathtaking excavations. Dr. Lauren Westlake is the assistant curator of Egyptian art at the Metropolitan Museum. NYPD detective Joe Caravello, who has loved Lauren for some time, needs her help to stop a forgery ring. She is more than suited to the task, and as a side benefit, it helps her connect once more to her neglectful father, an Egyptologist of some renown. As Joe and Lauren work the case, they begin to rekindle their relationship even as they become caught in a web of deceit and danger. In this new series starter, Christy Award winner Green (Drawn by the Current) offers details of Egyptian art, a rich cast made vivid by small details, plenty of historical references, and a plot full of red herrings. VERDICT Classified as Christian fiction, this involving blend of historical crime story, family saga, and romance will please a range of readers. Suggest it beyond its BISAC category and put it on reading lists of cozy mysteries and gentle romances too.--Neal Wyatt

Publishers Weekly Review

In this gripping entry, Green (Drawn by the Current) follows a pair of reunited friends as they try to get to the bottom of a spate of artifact forgeries in 1925 Manhattan. Egyptologist Lauren Westlake and detective Joe Caravello met at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as adolescents and formed a deep connection. As adults, they've drifted apart, but when Joe suspects a link between a recent speakeasy shooting and the rash of forged Egyptian antiquities plaguing the city's art collectors, he turns to Lauren, now assistant curator of Egyptian art at the Met, for help. Meanwhile Lauren, aching for the father she's never been close to, works to improve their distant relationship, though she's beginning to wonder if he might be connected to Joe's case. As the two work through layers of the mystery, Lauren draws on her faith to navigate the case, her complicated past with her father, and her growing feelings for Joe. With a convincing backdrop of Prohibition-era New York, Green carefully weaves historical detail and complex relationships into a tense narrative that doesn't let up till the close. The author's fans won't be disappointed. (Mar.)

Booklist Review

New York City in the Roaring Twenties provides the glittering backdrop to Green's (Veiled in Smoke, 2020) captivating tale about art forgery and Egyptology. Dr. Lauren Westlake has made a name for herself as the assistant curator of Egyptian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at a time when few women have the means or education for such a career. As children, Lauren and Joe Caravello met at the Met and now, as a police detective, Joe seeks her out for assistance in connecting art forgery to a shooting at a speakeasy that landed his partner in jail. Meanwhile, Lauren's father is working on acquiring items for the new Egyptology museum he plans to open in Newport, Rhode Island. Lauren's relationship with her father has always been difficult, and she struggles with conflicting emotions when he offers her the opportunity that she longed for as a child, to go on an expedition with him in Egypt. Green presents the perfect combination of well-developed characters, sweet romance, a glimpse into history, and a fascinating, well-researched mystery. Fans of Elizabeth Camden and Elizabeth Peters will be delighted by the start of this new series.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Jocelyn Green inspires faith and courage as the bestselling author of numerous fiction and nonfiction books, including the Christy Award-winning The Mark of the King and Drawn by the Current and her On Central Park series. Learn more at jocelyngreen.com.