Reviews

The Collector's Daughter: A Novel of the Discovery of Tutankhamun's Tomb by Gill Paul

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erinremen's review against another edition

5.0

A masterpiece of storytelling across two very different time periods as Eve relives her time with Howard Carter as the tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered. As she struggles with her memories of current event's, her memories of that time in her life are crystal clear. Eve lived a lustrous life with the love of an incredible man and the magic and wonder that she felt digging in for ancient artifacts shines through the pages. An interesting storyline that hooked me from the very beginning and I loved everything about it.

hrial310's review against another edition

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DNF: I really wanted to like this; an historical fiction book about a woman and the discovery of King Tut's tomb is literally a dream novel for me, but I hated that it was technically being told in the future by the woman when she was old. It would have come off much better if it just took place in the early 1900s and I couldn't get past that.

elvenavari's review against another edition

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4.0

Review of the audio book, read by Imogen Church.

This book was sad, okay? At least for me.

We are given the dual narrative of Lady Evelyn (Herbert) Beauchamp. The first POV is set in the 1920s when Evelyn is a young woman with dreams of being one of the first female archaeologists, and is one of the first to enter the tomb of Tutankhamun. The second POV is set in the 1970s when Evelyn is an older woman and has suffered a number of strokes, the latest one playing some serious havoc on her memory. But, if nothing else, Evelyn is determined and she works to get herself back to at least something of what she was before the last stroke. From the description, she did an amazing job of it.

And then there is the villain... Anna, an Egyptian academic who is determined to recover the items Evelyn, her father and Howard Carter secretly took from the tomb all those years ago. I may have been more sympathetic to Anna had she entered the picture 20 years before but as it was, Evelyn's frail health played right into her hands.

The ending was just...sad.

Imogen Church did a wonderful job narrating. I laughed every time she tried to sing Brograve's version of the National Anthem.