The Egyptologist: Amazon.co.uk: Arthur Phillips: Books

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31 Dec. Sunset. Read the first page

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Average Customer Review

3.2 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "His most valuable commodity was 'immortality'", 7 Oct 2004

By	M. J Leonard "MikeonAlpha" (Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

The Egyptologist is a big, bold, challenging and audacious novel. Unique in structure and style, the narrative immerses us in ancient Egypt, while at the same time, taking the reader on an adventure that covers the four corners of the world. I can't say I enjoyed this novel - I found Phillips constant epistolary method a little tiresome and the pacing almost grinded to a halt during the middle half of the book. But the Egyptologist will be sure to beguile those readers who like clever, offbeat mysteries, and who like their literature to be demanding and original.

One needs to pay particular attention to the narrative as everybody is hiding behind something else, and nothing or nobody is what it seems. The story is composed of letters and journal entries written by Ralf Trilipush, an Egyptologist, and by Harold Ferrell, an Australian private detective who is recalling in retirement (in 1954) his pursuit and investigation of Trilipush in 1922 (the time of the main story). The letters and diaries are actually smoke and mirrors because the reader is never sure who either man actually is, especially Trilipush. As the story progresses and more characters are introduced, identities are veiled and the reader is well advised not to take anything at face value.

The plot takes lots of unexpected twists and turns as Ferrell steadily becomes obsessed with the case, while concurrently;

Phillips includes long transitional passages and lengthy digressions on the life of Atum-hadu, and he constantly shifts back and forth among a half-dozen voices, styles and time periods. The Egyptologist allows the reader to see greed, corruption and obsession through the prism of an exotic time and place. And Phillips is perhaps at his best when he explores the complex themes of class and cultural envy, particularly between the Australian colonials and the English landed gentry.

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A multi-layered Mysterey, 10 Sep 2004

By	Walter Kilgore (LIVERPOOL) - See all my reviews

I read the author's highly regarded first novel, "Prague" and did not care for it (Just not enough snap). I decided to give Him another try with "The Egyptologist" as I have always been fascinated By ancient Egypt. I am glad I did as this is a wonderful book that wraps the mystery of the ancients with a mysterey envoloving 1920's archeology. I won't rehash the plot here as that has already been done. But what makes this such an enjoyable read is the multi layered plot along with the complex chacaters. You can also tell the author has done his research on ancient Egypt and the 1920 period. The surprise ending is topping on the cake. Overall I found this book to be an interesting and satisfying read.

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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Real Dissappointment, 12 Jan 2006

By A Customer

This review is from: The Egyptologist (Paperback)

I picked up this book really excitedly thinking I had got another "Historian" or "House of Leaves" type book. To start with he kept me going and I thought we were going somewhere, but as your first reviewer said the middle dragged so much I had to stop reading for awhile as I was bored and the style got really grating. The dectective's letters were good and that side of the story picked the book up a bit but the continual tosh from Trilipush on Atum- Hadu made me scream "Get on with it!" The ending picked up as we had got rid of Trilipush's diaries but as for a surprise ending! I saw it coming half-way through. Right from the bloody footprints appearing on the map, you could tell where the author was going. I feel really cheated by this book - it certainly doesn't do what it says on the cover. Drivel!!! It only gets 2 stars because the story might not be great but it is well written.