Book of the month - Mummy's boy

Tutankhamun is actually one of a series of - so far - four book titles, all under the overall banner of The Great Mysteries Of Archeology.

And, it must be said they are all extremely impressive. Available from Allied Retail And Commercial Ltd, Tutankhamun reads like a mystery novel, but a factual one.

It gives us the whole story of Howard Carter's excavation in Egypt's Valley of the Kings and the descriptions of the discovery and opening of the boy king's tomb are real page-turners. The book is split into three chapters, but each long chapter is further sub divided into several headed sections. Stuff like:

The Discovery - followed by The Reawakening of Tutankhamun and The Certainty of Carter etc...

Each sub-chapter is short and concise and extremely readable. And - the colour plates are among the best we've seen for some time. There are also colour and monochrome prints taken at the time of the excavation in 1922 and later.

The best complement that can be paid to this book, which retails at €14.60, is that it makes you want to read the other three books in the series. Tutankhamun is well worthy of being the current Showtime book of the month.