Very nicely done: Drake has clearly done his homework on the reign of the Boy King, the dynastic circumstances that brought him to the throne, and the political plots and machinations that may have resulted in his untimely death.
The mystery that brings detective Rahotep, âSeeker of Mysteriesâ for the Medjay (the pharaonic Eqyptian equivalent of a police force) into professional contact with young Tut and his teenage Queen, Ankhesenamun, is a satisfying one, suitably nasty and threatening, and drawing on the politics and religion of this dangerous time in Egyptian history. SPOILER The solution to the mystery is less satisfying: I felt that Rahotep could have done just as well finding his perp if he had taken a beautifully crafted scarab pin and stuck it in the list of characters that appears at the beginning of the book.
But I say, so what? I enjoyed this as a historical novel, more than as a mystery: a satisfying attempt to introduce a reader into the company of some familiar names from history, and to share the lives of the nameless, forgotten individuals who were the witnesses to great events. Like all novels based on well-known true events, you read it knowing how it's going to end, and I particularly liked the way that Drake acknowledges the bittersweet reality of that. When Rahotep is waiting for an audience with the King, he admires a beautiful alabaster cup. And the Reader knows immediately that, three thousand-odd years later, another man who wanted to solve the mystery of Tutankhamun will hold that cup again, one item among the many in Carter's horde of âbeautiful things.â
It's because Tutankhamum died so painfully young, and (for reasons of political plotting) was given a shamefully hurried burial that he is more famous, and we know more about him as a person, than Phaorohs who had far more successful reigns, and lived many decades longer. The eternity he was promised, and his tomb provided for, was delivered in the most ironic way possible â something that Drake, and his pleasingly modern detective, clearly appreciates.
The mystery that brings detective Rahotep, âSeeker of Mysteriesâ for the Medjay (the pharaonic Eqyptian equivalent of a police force) into professional contact with young Tut and his teenage Queen, Ankhesenamun, is a satisfying one, suitably nasty and threatening, and drawing on the politics and religion of this dangerous time in Egyptian history. SPOILER The solution to the mystery is less satisfying: I felt that Rahotep could have done just as well finding his perp if he had taken a beautifully crafted scarab pin and stuck it in the list of characters that appears at the beginning of the book.
But I say, so what? I enjoyed this as a historical novel, more than as a mystery: a satisfying attempt to introduce a reader into the company of some familiar names from history, and to share the lives of the nameless, forgotten individuals who were the witnesses to great events. Like all novels based on well-known true events, you read it knowing how it's going to end, and I particularly liked the way that Drake acknowledges the bittersweet reality of that. When Rahotep is waiting for an audience with the King, he admires a beautiful alabaster cup. And the Reader knows immediately that, three thousand-odd years later, another man who wanted to solve the mystery of Tutankhamun will hold that cup again, one item among the many in Carter's horde of âbeautiful things.â
It's because Tutankhamum died so painfully young, and (for reasons of political plotting) was given a shamefully hurried burial that he is more famous, and we know more about him as a person, than Phaorohs who had far more successful reigns, and lived many decades longer. The eternity he was promised, and his tomb provided for, was delivered in the most ironic way possible â something that Drake, and his pleasingly modern detective, clearly appreciates.
