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eososray's review against another edition
3.0
I do love Ancient Egyptian mystery stories. I like that this one includes some interesting political knowledge and details on the burial practices.
lakecake's review
3.0
I liked this, but I didn't love it. There was some weird stuff about the Egyptian royal lines, but it might be because this was made in 1994 and our understanding has changed. I'll read the second one, for sure.
heather667's review
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Murder, Violence, Excrement, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Vomit, and Death
Moderate: Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, and Blood
Minor: Incest, Homophobia, Infertility, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Pregnancy, Rape, and Sexual assault
mbondlamberty's review against another edition
4.0
Entertaining read and interesting window into an aspect I hadn't considered in Egyptian history - the actual rule of King Tut
michelleful's review against another edition
5.0
Mystery was 3-3.5 stars but the setting and characters were terrific. Set in ancient Egypt during the reign of Tutankhamun, I have no idea how historically accurate this was but it felt pretty believable. The "detective" characters, the "Eyes and Ears of the Pharaoh", have a lot of baggage and so are in themselves interesting. Plus, everyone knows what happens eventually to Tutankhamun so I'm kinda on tenterhooks to read the rest of this. These last three all bump it up to 5 stars in my book.
vesper1931's review
4.0
When a body is discovered in the Place of Anubis, that of scribe Hormin, chief investigator of Pharoah Tutankhamum investigates. Hormin seems to have been universally disliked resulting in many suspects. But then another body is discovered. Is there a connection between them, and what could be the motive.
An entertaining historical mystery with its interesting characters. A good start to the series.
pussreboots's review
2.0
Murder in the Place of Anubis is the first book in a series of mysteries that take place during the reign of Tutankhamen. The detective-protagonist is named Lord Meren and he reports directly to the pharaoh.
Meren is called to investigate a murder when a corpse is found in the Place of Anubis (where bodies are mummified).
The novel is part period piece and part standard, no frills, murder investigation. Like Lt. Columbo, Lord Meren knows early on who has done it and the likely motive behind the murder but he still needs enough evidence to prove his case.
While I did enjoy the scenes of interaction between Lord Meren and Tutankhamen, I found the rest of the book too bland to interest me in reading any more books in the series.
Meren is called to investigate a murder when a corpse is found in the Place of Anubis (where bodies are mummified).
The novel is part period piece and part standard, no frills, murder investigation. Like Lt. Columbo, Lord Meren knows early on who has done it and the likely motive behind the murder but he still needs enough evidence to prove his case.
While I did enjoy the scenes of interaction between Lord Meren and Tutankhamen, I found the rest of the book too bland to interest me in reading any more books in the series.
frater's review
4.0
A short but entertaining read - Meren, Eyes of the Pharoah and friend of the living god, and his son investigate a series of murders, with a cast of suspects consisting of some very colourful characters!
The first thing I worry about when starting a new historical series is that the author will be so pleased with their research that they will sacrifice story pacing to lecture about history. I enjoy history, and enjoy reading history non-fiction books, but in a fictional story heavy handed over-working of the setting derails the story and is far more annoying than under-characterising the setting.
Lynda manages to avoid this by sketching in ancient egypt with the lightest of touches, so much so that you rarely notice she is doing it at all. The details are seamlessly woven into the story and the perceptions of the protagonists.
Overall, the story is light, easily-readable, short and enjoyable. I'll definitely be back for more.
The first thing I worry about when starting a new historical series is that the author will be so pleased with their research that they will sacrifice story pacing to lecture about history. I enjoy history, and enjoy reading history non-fiction books, but in a fictional story heavy handed over-working of the setting derails the story and is far more annoying than under-characterising the setting.
Lynda manages to avoid this by sketching in ancient egypt with the lightest of touches, so much so that you rarely notice she is doing it at all. The details are seamlessly woven into the story and the perceptions of the protagonists.
Overall, the story is light, easily-readable, short and enjoyable. I'll definitely be back for more.
bookfever's review
3.0
I picked up Murder in the Place of Anubis kind of randomly and it turned out to be an unexpectedly entertaining read. I’m not going to say that I haven’t read better books in the same setting or that it was a super amazing story but I read it fairly quickly and I had a hard time putting the book down so those are all good things in my opinion.
A murder mystery set in ancient Egypt doesn’t seem to be the easiest thing to write about but somehow the author made it work fairly well. I liked reading about the main character Lord Meren, who is the Eyes and Ears of pharaoh Tutankhamun and who got assigned with the task of figuring out who murdered a scribe in the Place of Anubis (which is where they do the embalming of mummies and stuff). I also liked reading about his adopted son Kysen because he had an interesting backstory. I would’ve liked knowing more about him, in fact.
I definitely liked was that this all takes place during the time of the famous pharaoh Tutankhamun, although he’s never been a favorite of mine. There’s a lot of unrest in his court with priests and other people close to him waiting for an opportunity to overthrow the king so we’ve not only got the murder mystery to read about but also a lot of court intrigue although that aspect was definitely of less importantce to the story.
If there’s one thing I wish there was more of it would’ve been female characters. There really were only three mentioned and these women were all kind of put in a bad light. One was the wife of the murdered scribe who was shown as nothing more than a jealous spouse, another was the concubine of the murdered scribe who’s only purpose to the story seems to be how many men she banged to get more jewelry and the other one was a wife of Tutankhamun who tried to poison him. I just wish there could’ve been at least one female character portrayed more positively. So yeah that was kind of disappointing, especially since the book was written by a woman.
Overall, Murder in the Place of Anubis by Lynda Robinson was a decent read. The setting was great, I liked the writing a lot because it was descriptive and made me feel as if I was in ancient Egypt. Some of the characters were a bit lacking but in the end I did enjoy reading this murder mystery of the ancient world.
A murder mystery set in ancient Egypt doesn’t seem to be the easiest thing to write about but somehow the author made it work fairly well. I liked reading about the main character Lord Meren, who is the Eyes and Ears of pharaoh Tutankhamun and who got assigned with the task of figuring out who murdered a scribe in the Place of Anubis (which is where they do the embalming of mummies and stuff). I also liked reading about his adopted son Kysen because he had an interesting backstory. I would’ve liked knowing more about him, in fact.
I definitely liked was that this all takes place during the time of the famous pharaoh Tutankhamun, although he’s never been a favorite of mine. There’s a lot of unrest in his court with priests and other people close to him waiting for an opportunity to overthrow the king so we’ve not only got the murder mystery to read about but also a lot of court intrigue although that aspect was definitely of less importantce to the story.
If there’s one thing I wish there was more of it would’ve been female characters. There really were only three mentioned and these women were all kind of put in a bad light. One was the wife of the murdered scribe who was shown as nothing more than a jealous spouse, another was the concubine of the murdered scribe who’s only purpose to the story seems to be how many men she banged to get more jewelry and the other one was a wife of Tutankhamun who tried to poison him. I just wish there could’ve been at least one female character portrayed more positively. So yeah that was kind of disappointing, especially since the book was written by a woman.
Overall, Murder in the Place of Anubis by Lynda Robinson was a decent read. The setting was great, I liked the writing a lot because it was descriptive and made me feel as if I was in ancient Egypt. Some of the characters were a bit lacking but in the end I did enjoy reading this murder mystery of the ancient world.
smg's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
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