Teresa Lee

Archipelago

Archipelago is a historical adventure set in 1871, beginning in London and sweeping across the Aegean.

Celia is a disillusioned young lady in 1871 London, suffocating beneath the expectations of polite society. The day she comes of age, a letter arrives from her presumed-dead brother, Lewis, revealing that he was forced into hiding after becoming embroiled in their late parents’ secret lives as illegal treasure hunters. He now summons Celia to an abandoned Greek island, promising the truth about their family legacy.

Lewis’ trail leads Celia into the underworld of Limehouse, London's original Chinatown. There, she forms an unlikely alliance with Lin, a biracial Chinese-English laundress with a gentleman’s education who is searching for her estranged archaeologist father, and Ralf, a guarded Scottish mobster with secrets of his own.

Together, they embark on a perilous odyssey. Forced to rely on one another despite the gulf between their worlds, they encounter gangsters, crooked archaeologists, and a brutal battle aboard a smuggler ship crewed exclusively by deadly women. Meanwhile they are unknowingly shadowed by a sinister organisation that claims to be guardian of the world's treasures.

Archipelago revives the tradition of swashbuckling adventures like Treasure Island and Pirates of the Caribbean for a modern readership, placing at its heart people long kept at the genre’s margins, and the contested histories of its treasures. Deeply infused in the novel are my archaeological background, my Chinese heritage, and my London upbringing.

Status: Completed manuscript. Seeking representation.

Stay in touch for occasional updates on Archipelago, and a few things I don’t share elsewhere.

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