Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King: A Nonfiction Thriller by James Patterson and Martin Dugard

I love history - the older, the better. This book, The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King: A Nonfiction Thriller by James Patterson and Martin Dugard, had me standing in the palace of Akhenaten and his son Tutankhamen, watching the political intrigue, the servant spies, and the murders of royalty. I followed Howard Carter and his patrons up and down the Valley of the Kings hunting for lost tombs and, more importantly, tomb treasure undisturbed by grave robbers.

The chapters mainly alternate between Ancient Egypt and the early 1900's while Howard Carter worked in Egypt. Occasionally James Patterson throws in a few pages that describe his own hunt for accurate information and some of his writing techniques. One of those techniques was "Be There". Patterson describes events as if he were a personal observer in that time and place. His writing is so convincing that I came away from my reading with a suntan and sand under my fingernails. I felt the heat and gasped for a breath of pure air when Carter traversed the underground hallways carved for dead kings.

This book is more than worth the time you spend reading it.

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