Lee Kelly is the author of The Antiquity Affair and The Starlets, co-written with Jennifer Thorne, published by Harper Muse, and With Regrets, published by Crooked Lane Books. She is also the author of two novels for young adults, City of Savages and A Criminal Magic. Before becoming a writer, she was an entertainment lawyer who practiced law in Los Angeles and New York. She lives with her husband and children in New Jersey.
Katelyn Detweiler
Real life is turning out to be stranger than a script for the silver screen.
Summer, 1958. Vivienne Rhodes thinks she’s finally landed her break playing Helen in Apex Pictures’ big-budget Troy epic, A Thousand Ships, an anticipated blockbuster meant to resurrect the failing studio. Naturally, she’s devastated when she arrives on the remote Italian island of Tavalli and finds herself cast as Cassandra—while her nemesis, the fiancée-stealing Lottie Lawrence, America’s supposed “sweetheart,” is headlining instead.
The tension on set, though, turns deadly when the ladies discover that members of the crew are using the production as a front for something decidedly illegal—and that they are willing to kill to keep their dealings under wraps. When the two women find themselves on the run and holding key evidence, Vivienne and Lottie frantically agree to work together to deliver the proof to Interpol, hoping to protect both their lives and their careers.
Staying one step ahead of corrupt cops and looming mobsters, the archrivals flee across the seas. Their journey leads them into Monaco’s casinos, Grace Kelly’s palace, on a road trip through the Alps—even onto another film set, before a final showdown on Tavalli, where the lives of the entire cast and crew hang in the balance. Vivienne and Lottie finally have the chance to be real heroines—to save the day, the film, maybe even each other—but only if they can first figure out how to share the spotlight.
Praise for The Starlets
“The Starlets is the most fun I’ve had inside the pages of a book in a long time. The novel flips “friends to foe” on its head, putting two competing actresses in the spotlight, transforming the starlets from adversaries to allies as they race across Europe to take down a kingpin. Shenanigans, quick thinking, and a cat-and-mouse game ensue. A propulsive, page-turning romp perfect for book clubs.” –USA Today bestselling author Jenni L. Walsh
Harper Muse
September 17, 2024
Adult
Historical Fiction
JGLM
With Regrets, from author Lee Kelly, is equal parts Big Little Lies and Bird Box, a suburban drama wrapped in a 24-hour survival story at the end of the world, perfect for fans of David Koepp’s Aurora.
Seven courses, seven guests, twenty-four hours that will obliterate everything.
When recent NYC-transplant Liz Brinkley and her husband are invited to an exclusive soiree by their neighbor, “lifestyle guru” Britta Harris-Che, Liz’s immediate thought is hell no. Britta is insufferable, and Liz is wary to leave her young children with a barely-teenage babysitter. And yet she RSVPs anyway, trying to extend an olive branch to her withdrawing husband, who seems desperate to get in with the cliquey elite.
They’ve barely made it through their first round of champagne when a “red alert” comes through their phones, and every channel on the television tells the same story: strange atmospheric masses, reported to look like “glimmering clouds,” have been spreading through major U.S. cities and killing anyone they touch. Authorities have just one clear directive: Find shelter. Immediately.
A collective panic seizes the dinner party; all the guests have children at home. In the mad dash to their cars, they see it: a shimmering net floating over the town. The street is littered with wrecked cars and dead bodies. Leaving now is not an option. Instead, the group launches into survival mode, grabbing supplies to take shelter in the hosts’ wine cellar. But everyone has very different opinions about the best plan from there.
Liz becomes increasingly willing to do anything it takes to get back to her children. As the glimmering clouds continue to kill anyone who steps outside, the tensions and suspicions among the party guests near a boiling point. But she begins to realize that there may be others in that cellar even more desperate than she is.
Praise for With Regrets
“With Regrets is a tense and claustrophobic look at what happens when an already uncomfortable dinner party is interrupted by a world-changing catastrophe. Told through four unique women trapped in a wine cellar, the book is a thrilling mix of dystopia, locked-in thriller, and family drama as the complex characters are forced to deal with fear, unraveling secrets, and the ultimate terror: being separated from loved ones when disaster strikes.” –HelenKay Dimon, bestselling author of Moorewood Family Rules
Crooked Lane Books
September 5, 2023
Adult
Commerical
Crooked Lane
Two estranged sisters must band together to solve a puzzle three millennia in the making in this female-heroine take on Indiana Jones.
1907: The dawn of Egyptology is a time of imperialism and plunder, opulence and unrest, and Dr. Warren Ford, esteemed archaeologist, is the man of the hour. His daughters—prim intellectual Lila, on the eve of her debut as a Manhattan socialite, and doting nonconformist Tess, who dreams of following in his footsteps—have always lived their lives in the shadow of their famous father’s exploits. But when a secretive organization becomes intent on finding a lost artifact legendary for its dangerous power, it isn’t Dr. Ford they turn their sights on—it’s his two remarkable daughters.
Tess and Lila called themselves The Fearless Fords in their childhood, dreaming of daring international adventures together, but the sisters have barely spoken for years. Presented now with a grand adventure and a puzzle that will require all their wits, the two women face a choice. Will they follow the clues fast enough to win the ultimate prize? Or will they prove clever enough to change the game entirely?
The Antiquity Affair is a high stakes trans-Atlantic thrill ride, with the page-turning excitement and romance of classic adventure novels and a poignant story of sisterhood at its core—all the messy and beautiful truths of what it means to be family.
Harper Muse
June 6, 2023
Adult
Historical
JGLM
