The Murder of King Tut

by James Patterson and Martin Dugard
Scott County Library audiobook 5 CDs
read by Joe Barrett
genre: historical fiction

Ugh. This book both bugged and fascinated me. Patterson writes it as though it is a highly researched representation of how King Tut actually died, but it reads much more like fiction with some basis in history. He divides the story into present day (him as author), the 1920s and Howard Carter's work, and Ancient Egypt when Tut lived and died.

I had forgotten that Patterson is notorious for many, many very short chapters. As a middle school media specialist, I appreciated that the short chapters helped some reluctant readers to stay more focused. Listening to this, I was appalled that a few paragraphs constituted an entire chapter, especially when the next chapter had the exact same setting, time period, and characters. Just irritating.

The vocal work by Barrett was decent, but accents were not consistent. Howard Carter sometimes sounded British, sometimes American, sometimes exactly the same as the narrator voice.

It was especially irritating when Ancient Egyptians were given modern day sensibilities. Tut was so in love with his half-sister wife that he didn't want to upset her by bedding a different woman. Really?! Does that seem at all realistic, given his culture and station in life? What an incredibly kind and sensitive Pharaoh he was.

I most enjoyed the Howard Carter thread of the story. In fact, I got a children's book on Tut's tomb and read it. That author had some different information from Patterson's book. (For example, according to this book, the autopsy was very poorly done, damaging Tut's mummy. The children's book said it was very carefully handled.)

The modern day part included how much Patterson enjoys golfing at Trump's course in Palm Beach, Florida. Yuk. Why do we need this perspective?

I was disappointed, but find Ancient Egypt to be fascinating. His ruminations on how (and who) killed Tut are interesting, but I don't know that I am confident of his research and conclusions.