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Summary
Summary
From the author of The Song of the Jade Lily comes a thrilling story of a family secret that leads to a legendary treasure.
Why would someone bury a bucket of precious jewels and gemstones and never return?
Present Day. When respected American jewelry historian, Kate Kirby, receives a call about the Cheapside jewels, she knows she's on the brink of the experience of a lifetime.
But the trip to London forces Kate to explore secrets that have long been buried by her own family. Back in Boston, Kate has uncovered a series of sketches in her great-grandmother's papers linking her suffragette great-grandmother Essie to the Cheapside collection. Could these sketches hold the key to Essie's secret life in Edwardian London?
In the summer of 1912, impoverished Irish immigrant Essie Murphy happens to be visiting her brother when a workman's pickaxe strikes through the floor of an old tenement house in Cheapside, near St. Paul's Cathedral in London. The workmen uncover a stash of treasure--from Ottoman pendants to Elizabethan and Jacobean gems--and then the finds disappear again! Could these jewels--one in particular--change the fortunes of Essie and her sisters?
Together with photographer Marcus Holt, Kate Kirby chases the history of the Cheapside gems and jewels, especially the story of a small diamond champlevé enamel ring. Soon, everything Kate believes about her family, gemology, and herself will be threatened.
Based on a fascinating true story, The Lost Jewels is a riveting historical fiction novel that will captivate readers from the beginning to the unforgettable, surprising end.
Reviews (2)
Booklist Review
Esteemed historian Dr. Kate Kirby is tasked with uncovering the origins of the Cheapside Hoard, a cache of priceless gems discovered by London workmen in 1912. In accepting the assignment, Kate sees an opportunity to add on some independent research. She grew up hearing tall tales of the hoard from her great-grandmother Essie, a Cheapside native. Traveling to London, Paris, India, Sri Lanka, and back to Boston, Kate begins unraveling the mystery of the precious jewels, along with her great-grandmother's biggest secret. In this historical tale inspired by a true story, Australian author Manning (The Song of the Jade Lily, 2019) uses Essie and Kate as alternating narrators, with interludes from other individuals involved in the life cycle of the precious jewels. From an Indian boy working in the mines of Golconda to a sailor catching a glimpse of an emerald as big as his fist, Manning gives a voice to those so often unheard in the jewelry industry. A tale of transferred wealth, power, and passion, Manning's novel will appeal to fans of Penny Vincenzi's A Perfect Heritage (2015), Paula McLain's The Paris Wife (2011), and Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian (2005).
Library Journal Review
Australian author Manning follows her big-hit U.S. debut, The Song of the Jade Lily, with fact-based historical fiction about the Cheapside jewels, a stash of Ottoman pendants and Elizabethan and Jacobian sparklers discovered beneath the floor of a 1912 London tenement. They quickly disappeared, but in present times American jewelry historian Kate Kirby learns that her great-grandmother Essie may have a link to the jewels. With a 75,000-copy paperback and 30, 000-copy hardcover first printing.
