Publishers Weekly
01/30/2023
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.)
RITA and Christy Award–winning author Elizabeth Camden
This novel is a richly-layered delight.”
Library Journal
02/01/2023
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winner Green (Drawn by the Current) offers details of Egyptian art, a rich cast made vivid by small details, plenty of historical references, and a plot full of red herrings.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
