The Murder of King Tut is the newest foray into the field of homicide by James Patterson.
For once, history reads like one of Patterson’s novels. It keeps you engrossed from beginning to
end. This is one story I didn’t want to stop listening to, no matter how late the hour. This is
the first time history has intrigued me so much that I couldn’t find a dull place to stop
reading—or listening, as in my case.
Perhaps we all remember the story of the young boy king, Tutenkhamen, whose tomb Howard Carter
found in 1923. He had felt the tomb was there in spite of the fact that an American named Davis
had claimed to have found it earlier. However, although Davis had indeed found some objects bearing
Tutankhamen's seal in a tomb, it was not Tutankhamen's tomb. Carter had spent thirty years in the
Valley of the Kings without finding the thing that most archaeologists dreamed of finding: the
undisturbed tomb of a pharaoh. It had long been known that grave robbers had removed most of the
golden statues and other valuables that usually accompanied the burial of a pharaoh. However,
archaeologists still dreamed of finding a tomb that had not been disturbed.
Not only does the book contain the story of finding the tomb, it also tells the story of
Tutenkhamen’s life and death in great detail. It also solves the murder—as to who did it and
why. The end of this story is most surprising. It is what’s in the middle of that story that
makes it break one’s heart: Tutenkhamen married his sister, and she also died. It is a riveting
tale to which I think everyone should listen. Pick up a copy of The Murder of King Tut, and
spend a lovely day going back in time.