Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 1/30/2015 + 1223 more book reviews

I dug this book out of my stacks of unread books after hearing about the recent damage done to King Tut's burial mask. The news story on TV talked about Howard Carter and his discovery of the tomb which piqued my interest in reading something about his discovery. I remembered buying The Egyptologist in 2004 after reading a good review of it but never got around to reading it. Anyway, sorry I waited so long. Although this was far from what I expected, I really enjoyed it. Full of misdirection and deceit. The novel was written in a very unique style using only letters and journals. The main characters whose journal and letters comprise the bulk of the story is Ralph Trilipush, an Egyptologist searching for the tomb of a fabled Egyptian King -- Atum-hadu. But how much of his journal is accurate and truthful? The other main character is the Australian detective, Ferrell, who relates his experiences from the 1920s in letters from his Australian nursing home in the 1950s. Ferrell gets involved with Trilipush when he is hired to search for a long-lost heir of a British brewery magnate in Australia. But how much of Ferrell's narrative is accurate? The story goes from Australia to Britain to New York to Egypt in search of answers but all is not as it seems. Overall, I would recommend this one. It was full of humor, misdirection, half-truths, and a lot of fun! Howard Carter is a minor character in the book and I probably will seek out more about him.

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