The Murder of King Tut

The Plot to Kill the Child King

By: James Patterson, Martin Dugard

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Since 1922, when Howard Carter discovered Tut's 3,000-year-old tomb, most Egyptologists have presumed that the young king died of disease, or perhaps an accident, such as a chariot fall.

But what if his fate was actually much more sinister?

Now, in The Murder of Tut, James Patterson and Martin Dugard chronicle their epic quest to find out what happened to the boy-king. They comb through the evidence--X-rays, Carter's files, forensic clues--and scavenge for overlooked data to piece together the details of his life and death. The result is a true crime tale of intrigue, betrayal, and usurpation that presents a compelling case that King Tut's death was anything but natural.

©2009 James Patterson (P)2009 Hachette

great historical mystery

well written, exciting historical murder mystery. loved the transitions in time period. I would highly recommend

meh

Bulk-writer James Patterson just never quite "does it" for me, but this was a bit different from his normal fare. It wasn't awful, it wasn't great, but basically just a light way to pass some time reading. It was James Michener-lite. Patterson seems to believe that he has solved the mystery of King Tut, and I am totally not convinced and am baffled how he has the hubris to make such a claim on such scant evidence and copious speculation. The work is classified as non-fiction which is even more astounding. It is historical fiction, don't let the categorization fool you.

Thought Provoking

Enjoyed the story, excellently written. Although, I do not feel the in depth descriptions of intimacy necessary to the story. Not suitable for young people due to the sexual nature of the book. If the book was “cleaned up” it would be an excellent resource for school aged children.

Great and Interesting!

Ignore the comments that this book is disappointing and predictable. If you like a mystery or have any sort of interest in King Tutankhamun, I would greatly recommend you read this! It’s a history novel, but reads like a mystery! Enjoy!

Not factual

The author claims to have researched this subject. The book contains numerous errors and his viewpoint of Tut's life is pure fantasy. Howard Carter is also portrayed inaccurately. Don't buy this book if you want if you want facts about the life and death of King Tut.

Boring

Like reading a technical manual. I never got into the story.

The Worst, an Absolute Insult to the Listener

Patterson now joins the growing list of authors who find that they can rest on whatever laurels they may have had and can author and get published a book that would be bad if a fifth grader had written it. This book badly plagiarizes a book called "The Egyptian" (available on Audible). This book is an insult. It is so poorly researched and poorly narrated with "hip-hop" expressions not really in vogue 13 centuries before the birth of Christ. I would not buy this book at any price and if I was being paid, would refuse to listen to it.

awful

What a complete waste of good reading time. I hated the narrator. The story was ridiculous. Patterson is a dreadful author. I can't believe I wasted a credit on this.

Can`t Believe I Wasted a Credit on This!!

I usually check the reviews before buying an audiobook but this one I didn`t and BOY AM I SORRY! Never again - for the most part the reviews are right on. As for this audio I don`t even want to put one star but I think you have to to post a review. Anyway - the book never takes off -in fact I was like - so okay, Tut is murdered (toward the end of the book) by X and ...nothing??? The book just ends????? Who the heck cares that Howard Carter died alone or that his socialite girlfriend visited his grave when he died? I frankly care very little about Carter or his sponsor et al - this is all old history so let`s get to the story! There were too many fillers (that don`t even rise to the level of fillers but that is another story) that were uninteresting, irrelevant and just dumb! In fact I was not expecting the book to be so much about Carter and everyone else EXCEPT Tut! I foolishly thought the book would be about speculation re Tut being murdered for a bunch of new medical evidence or something like that. Given how many new wanna bes can`t get published it is amazing something this bad does. There is only one line that refers to the murder and (maybe I need to listen to it again to be sure) I am not sure how the author came to even that conclusion b/c I sure didn`t at least not based on the story the author created. Or at least he doesn`t convince me that what might have happened to Tut, did.
Fool me once, but never again will I read anything by this author. This book is just a huge disappointment! The chapters jumping back and forth from 1300 years ago to 1900s was a clever device until it kept happening practically every 2-3 paragraphs - so it seemed. Before going on to post my review I was relieved to read my views are not in the minority. I do not recommend this book ever to anyone. In fact, I deleted it from my drive for good measure.

I was wanting more.

Such a cool idea to write about King Tut, but it just didn't run as deep as I would have liked it too. The three time periods were OK, could have use just two Howard Carter's and Tut's timeline. Overall worth a credit --better yet, worth a CD burn and passing it to your friends!