Customer Reviews

The Mysterious Death of Tutankhamun: Re-Opening the Case of Egypt's Boy-King

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

We would never allow nondoctors to write medical treatises (one hopes, anyway); yet non-scholars who write on ancient Egypt in general, and Tutankhamun (or the El-Amarna epoch) in particular, are truly a dime a dozen in every respect. This book is on a par with Bob Brier's "thriller" on the putative murder of Tutankhamun. Ignorance of Egyptian language and history are outstanding here, the constant capitalization of epithets (real and imaginary--mostly imaginary)creates a hysterical tone, and the last chapter (fictional) is simply grotesque. One wonderful howler is that there are two references to "iced melon"--where would the Egyptians procure (and keep) ICE, of all things? Please, if you want delightfully readable AND absolutely accurate treatments of Tutankhamun, read "Akhenaten" and "The Complete Tutankhamun," both by Nicholas Reeves, and skip this overwrought mess. Oh, and one last thing--as genuinely interesting (if quite unprovable) as it may be to speculate that Tutankhamun had Marfan's syndrome, it is as silly to say that the many images of the King seated show that he was physically weak as to say (citing an old joke here)that Walter Cronkite had no legs because you never saw him standing.

Paul Doherty is the consummate professional when it comes to writing historical novels. I for one do not know how he can be so prolific with his offering of books and yet make sure that each of them is well researched. Whether they be 13th, 14th, or fifteenth century they are always true to the period. He also writes about Ancient Egypt and now he has taken to writing about Alexander the Great. Paul Doherty has the rare talent of making you feel as though you are there, be it medieval England, or battling with Alexander. The sounds and smells of the period seem to waft from the pages of his books.

With this book Doherty proves that he is a scholar as well as a writer of novels and is a must for anyone interested in Tutankhamun or Egyptology in general. Ever since that day in 1922 when Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon looked through into the tomb of the boy Pharaoh, the world has never tired of hearing tales about him and looking at the fabulous artefacts that were carefully removed from the tomb in the valley of the kings.

Tutankhamun was only a very young man when he died mysteriously. Even with the lower life expectancy at that time he should have reigned for many more years. Was his death an accident, or was he murdered by people who opposed his rule? With the use of modern technology more and more clues are coming to light about the life and death of the young Pharaoh. This book offers new clues and highlights that intrigue that was going on at the Egyptian court at the time of Tutankhamun's death.