The Egyptologist

By: Arthur Phillips

Narrated by: Gianfranco Negroponte, Simon Prebble, Gerard Doyle, Bianca Mato

Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Critically acclaimed author Arthur Phillips won the L.A. Times First Fiction Prize for his debut novel, Prague, which landed on top 10 lists across America and was a New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Chicago Tribune best seller. In The Egyptologist, Phillips displays his gift for brilliantly constructed, labyrinthine stories infused with imaginative wit.

Howard Carter has just made one of the great discoveries of all time, the unveiling of Tutankhamun's tomb. At the same time, Egyptologist Ralph Trilipush finds himself in a slightly less spectacular position. He has staked everything on a scrap of hieroglyphic pornography. Halfway around the world, an Australian detective sets off on a globetrotting quest to find a murderer. Or two. Or three. These events, seemingly unrelated, are about to collide in a spectacular yet utterly unpredictable fashion.

©2004 Arthur Phillips (P)2004 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"Witty." (The New Yorker
"Vastly entertaining." (Publishers Weekly)
"Phillips proves himself once again to be a wildly creative storyteller." (Booklist)

I just couldn't take any more.....

I really wanted to like this book. The unique form of the material should have been very interesting, but I feel the dramatization actually detracted from the book. I listened to 3.5 hours of Part 1 and felt I was having to work too hard to stay interested. I may try to listen again someday, but I had to move on to something else.

Wow. Just wow.

More twists than an M. Night Shamalan film. Begins as a delightfully snide satire in a marvelously atmospheric setting; descends into unsettling darkness. Why isn’t this a movie?

Save yourself the trouble of downloading a loser

I haven't made many poor choices of audible books, but his one is a real lemon. There may be a story here, but I sure didn't find it. Some audio books I have to restart several times to really get hooked into, but nothing could have made this one worthwhile.

Save your credits and get the wonderful two part novel, "The Egyptian" instead. That one is a jewel; this one is trash.

Depressing and rambling

I listened to this audio book after Elizabeth Peter's Amelia Peabody series. I do recommend that series. I found this book to be depressing. The story of a boy that was born into poverty and was abused as a child who managed to developed a passion for Egyptology. Instead of encountering good people in his sad life that want to build into him, he meets people that use him for their own ends. His mind becomes twisted and ends in a very sad and depressing way. In the Amelia Peabody series the passion of the author for Egyptology comes through where as in this story Egyptology is just a background for the story of a life that devolve into suicide.

Annoyingly Bad

The only reason I gave this book 1 star is because it wouldn't print unless I put something in the field. Actually, I give this book zero stars since it had absolutely no redeeming values. I listened to the first 4 CD's and still had no idea what the plot was since it had none (other than the ramblings of the narrators). This is the first book I bought without reading the customer's reviews. I will never make that mistake again! I started fast forwarding the segments hoping it might get better - it didn't. When I reached the 9th CD of the 15 total, I have up. By far - the worst book I never finished.

zzzzzz!

This book can be summed up in one word- boring! The way the story unfolds in fairly interesting but the "mystery" isn't powerful enough to drive the story forward with any momentum. I found myself longing for the book to finally end. I'd recommend that you skip this one.

What was he thinking?

An aged former private investigator writes to the nephew of a department store heiress about a case thirty years prior involving an Egyptologist who was engaged to marry the heiress aunt. Like most of the characters in this tedious book, the old guy thinks he's much more than he is. And he wants to be much more than that. From slow start to boring middle to boring finish, the only remaining mystery is why I listened to the entire book!
I'd sure like to know the most boring book the other reviewer ("second worst book I ever listened to") listened to, to make sure I never order it.
The single star is for the plot technique of telling the story through multiple points of view solely through correspondence of the characters. (That, and the fact that one is the lowest number a reviewer can assign.)
The "mystery" is solved by the average reader about halfway through. The main character - the Egyptologist - is a deluded megalomaniac, so unlikeable that he makes a bad book worse. The other characters are his equal. Whatever was the author thinking?

Really Boring -- Couldn't finish

The only good thing I can say about the 30 minutes of this book that I managed to get through is that the readers had wonderful voices and the accents were great. The story was boring and there was nothing to keep me interested. I found myself not really caring what happened to anyone. I just wanted another book. I usually manage to finish at least one part but I just couldn't make myself listen to this anymore. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless you really like wordy, Victorian-style novels.

I really enjoyed this book.

The narration was wonderful. The story was good. I could not put my pda down.

The Egyptologist is poor

I couldn't get into this story. I listened to about 80 minutes and stopped.