by Sally Beaumann Harper 2014, 529 pages, Historical Fiction
“The story of the friendship between delicate 11-year-old Lucy, sent from England to recover from typhus in sun-glazed Egypt, and a girl she meets there, the daughter of an American archaeologist who hover on the fringes of the 1922 discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.”
Tutankhamen! Although these are both topics I know little about, they are exotic and fascinating, and I enjoyed the picture Beaumann paints of the romance and excitement surrounding the discovery of King Tut’s tomb. You can feel the heat in the air, and the tension over who will find the treasure first. Beaumann also paints a picture involving the shadier parts of the time period (the problems of Colonialism, for one), which helped bring a richness and a fullness to the story it would have lacked otherwise.
The story lost me a little because it jumps back and forth in the timeline of the main character’s life instead of sticking with her time in Egypt. However, the story of the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb is fascinating enough that I stuck with it. Read at least the Egyptian parts if the other portions of the book drag for you.
MB
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