Review Rating
With the October 2004 review, we began rating the books on the basis of one to four trowels;
one trowel= don’t bother, to four trowels= run right out to your local book store and buy the hard cover!
Golden Oldies - reviewing previously unreviewed books by previously reviewed “greatest hits” authors!
As we celebrate twenty-five years of the MVAC reviews of archaeological fiction, I thought it would be fun to re-visit six of the authors whose works have been reviewed in the past. Three of these authors have sadly passed away since I first reviewed them (Margot Arnold, Lynn Hamilton, and Elizabeth Peters); two have “retired” their archaeologist protagonists, Gideon Oliver (Aaron Elkins), and Emma Fielding (Dana Cameron); and one, (Kate Ellis) continues to put DI Wesley Peterson and his friend, archaeologist Neil Watson, in harm’s way as solve contemporary crimes that have their roots in the distant past. While these authors have been reviewed previously, these books have not.
The Antiquity Affair by Lee Kelly; Jennifer Thorne
Reviewed on: November 1, 2026
Harper Muse: Nashville, TN
2023 (PB)
It is March of 1907 and Lila May Ford is preparing for her debut into “proper society” at her grandmother’s Riverside, New York, slightly down-in-the mouth mansion. Her family’s fortunes have been on the decline for some time, but Grandmama (and Lila) hope that including wealthy young Yalie and scion of the fabulously wealthy Hendricks family, William, will spark a romantic relationship that might reverse that trend.
The only question left unresolved is whether Lila’s father, archaeologist Dr. Warren Ford, will tear himself away from the wonders of the pyramids or the palace of Knossos or the spectacle of Pompeii to attend his daughter’s debutante ball. Lila’s younger and more rebellious sister, Tess—a budding archaeologist following in her father’s footsteps—assures her that their father, despite having just discovered a new tomb in the Valley of the Kings, will arrive shortly, direct from Cairo. Lila, quite frankly, has doubts that her father will tear himself away from his obsessions, and show up at all. Tess also has misgivings, but Warren Ford does show up at the last moment in a very peculiar way and quickly dashes off with his daughter Lila—almost literally kidnaping her from her own celebration.
Meanwhile the very wealthy (and very handsome) William Hendricks mistakes the two sisters and literally does kidnap Tess, thinking she is Lila, “for her own good.” At a remote Hudson River Valley mansion, William proposes to Tess (thinking she is Lila), while at the same time a gathering of New York’s wealthy and very reactionary elite are meeting at the same mansion to devise a plan that will, if successful, enable the cabal to exert unbelievable power over great parts of the world and control the course of world events. Numbered among the conspirators are William Hendricks’ fabulously wealthy father and William’s brother-in-law Theodore Davies, lawyer, self-made millionaire and sole source of funding for Warren Ford’s excavation in the Valley of the Kings. Davies and his fellow conspirators had hoped Warren Ford’s excavation of Akhenaten’s long-lost burial site at Tomb KV55 would also yield the burial of the legendary Five Ladies and the Serpent’s Crown, which they believe, according to legend, will allow them to achieve world domination by controlling the minds of populations under the Crown’s influence.
The cabal has in its possession several hieroglyphic scrolls which they believe will unlock the secret to the tomb of the Five Ladies and the Serpent’s Crown. They are incapable of doing so but one of their number—Dr. Belot, an aging academic and former colleague of Warren Ford’s, knows that Lila has the skills to unlock the secrets hidden within the scrolls’ enigmatic symbols. He is correct, for years earlier, before Lila was summarily sent back to live with “Society” grandmother, Lila had also dreamed of an academic life and had demonstrated a great talent for solving arcane puzzles, including deciphering hieroglyphic writing. But this is Tess in the clutches of the cabal, and she has no such linguistic talents—and the cold-blooded conspirators have made it painfully clear that they have no problem permanently disposing of those who have no value to them!
What follows is a wild and captivating race across oceans and deserts as the two cadres—the wealthy schemers with their unwilling captive and archaeologist Warren Ford, his newly liberated daughter Lila, and Warren’s enigmatic assistant, Alexandre Ibrahim d’Auteuil—duel to discover and unearth the ancient artifact that could, according to legend, turn the masses into mindless automatons. And leading the charge for the forces of good are two sisters, formerly estranged, who now combine their guile and talents to thwart the efforts of a diabolical enemy. This is swash-buckling adventure and romance at its very best. Four trowels for The Antiquity Affair, and perhaps best of all, the final chapter hints at further adventures for Lila and Tess in the lands of the ancient Celts!
