The Mysterious Death of Tutankhamun [Hardcover]

Paul Doherty (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 22, 2002

What—or who—really caused the death of Egypt’s splendid young king? More than 3,000 years after his death, the entire civilized world is familiar with the face and burial site of one very special young Egyptian ruler, whose fabulous burial treasure represents one of the Ancient World’s most glorious and successful civilizations. It is assumed he died of natural causes. But how did he really die? In this exciting and thought-provoking account of the life and death of Tutankhamun, the basis for a new two-part Discovery Channel documentary airing in fall 2002, Paul Doherty reveals how King Tut’s famous calm and beautiful death mask conceals a story of bloody intrigue at the Egyptian court. The boy-king came to the throne when religious dissent threatened the vast empire and died mysteriously at the age of only eighteen. Was he secretly assassinated by the powerful cabal that ran the court and the country? Could the powerful first minister, Ay, have murdered him to seize the pharonic crown for himself? What part did Ankhesenamun, Ay’s granddaughter, and Tutankhamun’s beautiful queen, play in the court’s intrigues? And what about the hurried burial in a virtually unmarked grave—was it to conceal the evidence of fatal head wounds? Doherty believes that modern research, coupled with the original testimony of Howard Carter, the archaeologist who discovered the tomb, can answer all these questions and present an even more fascinating scenario. He offers important new theories about Tutankhamun, both as a man and a Pharaoh, and an illuminating explanation of the intrigue that surrounded his sudden and untimely end. Color photographs add to this intriguing investigation into the death of Egypt's most famous Pharoah.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although the glorious riches of the young King Tutankhamun's tomb have been displayed in museums around the world, his death at age 18 remains shrouded in secrecy. Why was his burial so hasty? Why was he buried initially in a storeroom rather than in a splendid pharaonic tomb? Why did he die at such a young age? British historical novelist Doherty (The Mask of Ra) answers these and other questions in a splendid historical thriller. He skillfully re-creates the political intrigue, the religious controversy and the military exploits of Egypt's 18th Dynasty as he searches for clues to Tut's mysterious death and burial. Some scholars have theorized that Ay, Tut's vice-regent, murdered Tut in order to gain the throne for himself. Others have implicated Tut's wife in a murder plot. Combing through a mountain of archeological evidence, Doherty concludes that Tut likely suffered from Marfan's syndrome, a disease that causes tissues and vital organs to deteriorate, leading to blindness and physical as well as mental weakness. According to Doherty, such a condition would explain why Tut's tomb contains 413 walking sticks and why many of the tomb's drawings portray him as frail and lethargic. Doherty points out that Tut's death gave rise to a hasty and not altogether proper burial because Ay wanted to keep the king's death a secret from Horemheb, the military commander, so that Ay could assume the throne unimpeded. Zestfully told, Doherty's historical reconstruction of Tut's death is a first-rate page-turner. Color photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Doherty, who earned his doctorate in history at Oxford, is the author of many historical novels set in ancient Egypt. He now joins Christine El Mahdy (Tutankhamen: The Life and Death of the Boy-King) and Bob Brier (The Murder of Tutankhamen: A True Story) in the realm of speculative history, attempting to reconstruct Egypt's post-Amarna period using the small corpus of often fragmentary inscriptions, decorative temple reliefs, tomb paintings, funerary equipment, and mummies surviving from the 14th century B.C.E. Although displaying a rather embellished style in the prolog and conclusion, Doherty gets down to business in the main five chapters, presenting a highly plausible end-game scenario for the 18th dynasty. After rounding up the usual suspects (Ay, Horemheb, and Ankhesenamun), he rejects Brier's assassination theory as the cause of Tutankhamun's early death and hasty burial, instead suggesting Marfan syndrome, an inherited genetic disorder, as the possible explanation, as well as for the physical abnormalities of his purported father, Akhenaton. Doherty writes in a style accessible to the nonspecialist, starting with a descriptive list of dramatis personae and ending with an annotated bibliography. Recommended for all public libraries. (Illustrations and index not seen.)-Edward K. Werner, St. Lucie Cty. Lib. Syst., Ft. Pierce, FL
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf (October 22, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786710756
• ISBN-13: 978-0786710751
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,579,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book marred by editing problems, January 10, 2003

By 

"saxxton" (Tulsa, OK USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mysterious Death of Tutankhamun (Hardcover)

I have read and much enjoyed P.C. Doherty's books of Ancient Egytptian historical fiction, so I thought I'd read this "scholarly" volume.

Doherty makes some excellent points in his explanation of Tut's death. I especially liked his opinion on whether or not Tut was murdered, which is much different from the view presented in Bob Brier's "Murder of Tutankhamun." I recommend reading both books as it is interesting to see the different conclusions drawn using the same physical evidence.

What I did not like was that this book was not edited very well. There are several typos and some awkward sentences (clauses piled upon clauses.) Also, the 4th chapter is extremely repetitive of points made earlier in the book.

And finally, the 5th chapter is a complete work of fiction built around historical events. Though I like historical fiction, it doesn't belong in a book where Doherty has previously discussed historical fact. Were I not aware of Doherty's previous works of fiction, I would wonder where this chapter came from.

This book is worth reading, but does have some minor flaws.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars How many books about the murder of Tut is too many?, February 21, 2005

By 

Wadjet "W.W." - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mysterious Death of Tutankhamun (Hardcover)

Poor King Tut! His death has now been reenacted in countless novels and at least two television specials. Doherty's book, as another reader has noted, is unscholarly, but in many ways no more so that Bob Brier's very similar book "The Murder of tutankhamen", and "Who Killed King Tut?: Using Modern Forensics to Solve a 3300-Year-Old Mystery" by Michael R. King, Gregory M. Copper, Don DeNevi, Joann Fletcher, GREGORY M. COOPER. The problem with all of these books is that they stretch the subject matter out to the breaking point, while most of the authors have no direct access to the body of the deceased king.