THE MURDER OF KING TUT
BY: James Patteron and Martin Dugard
Genre: A Nonfiction Thriller
As I have mentioned over on my Patterson’s Pantry Blog as a student I adored studying ancient history. While ancient Greece and Rome were my favorites I was also fascinated by the pharaohs of Egypt. So when I came across this non-fiction book written by one of my favorite authors I was thrilled.
I was even more excited to see, according to the cover, it was a non-fiction thriller about the plot to kill the child King Tut I HAD to read it.
Unfortunately it was a disappointment. There was none of the suspense that Patterson usually includes in his books. The ancient history was so chopped up it was hard to follow.
I understand the importance of following the life of Howard Carter, the Egyptologist that un-covered Tut’s burial chamber, but so much time was spent on his failures over a 30 year time span little space was left to do the life of King Tut justice.
The third story running in the book could have been left out entirely or confined to the prologue and epilogue rather than thrown in as well. While I appreciate the fact Mr. Patterson was inspired to write the book there was no need to scatter here and there his plugs for his other books and who was doing what research. Again I would have much preferred more time had been spent in Ancient Egypt, and Tut.
Instead of spending hundreds of words on the long lineage of Tut he could have dealt more with just the lineage of his parents, and especially his stepmother Nefertiti, and how she died. Or more about his child bride and half sister.
Patterson claims they solved the “crime” of King Tut’s murder. I’ll leave you to decide if he did.
My rating for this book is a low B-. More for the research that was done on this book than for the story line.
Jan who will go back to reading the fictional characters of James Patterson’s genius and steer from any future non-fiction written by him in OK
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