Out of the Black Land by Kerry Greenwood

In the name of Ptah, in the name of his consort Mut after whom I was called and his son Khons who is the moon and time, in the hope that my heart will weigh heavily against the feather and I may live and die in Maat which is truth, I declare that my name is Mutnodjme and my sister is the most beautiful woman in the world.

So basically all this to say: My name's Mut something and my sister's hot. (I'm paraphrasing, mind you.) Talk about making a municipal dump site out of a cigarette butt. All that - 68 words - to say, hi.

The next paragraph rambles on about some life story. Why should anyone care though? Who is this person? The MC? Do we really need the info on his birth certificate so soon, before the story begins?

Paragraph three: A police description of Mut something. With lots of foreign words, the attention miser's eyes start to glaze over, and s/he starts thinking of doing something else, anything else to stop reading this book.

First thing said:

“Egypt is called the Black Land, because of the rich soil deposited by the river.”

Is my grade 11 history teacher in this book? If not, this was most likely written for grade 11 history teachers.

Chapter Two shows promise:

It is a serious business, marrying a Pharaoh.

Unfortunately, I never got that far.

Verdict: Fail.

Sincerely,

Rudy Globird