The Collector's Daughter

Trigger warnings: stroke, death of a parent, death of a spouse, separation from children

The Earl of Carnarvon's daughter accompanies him to Egypt for the discovery of King Tut's tomb.

Lady Evelyn Herbert, daughter of George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, tags along to her father's trips to Egypt looking for the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings. Howard Carter heads up the search for the tomb by mapping the valley and all the previous expeditions. Eve grew up studying Egyptian stories and myths and longs to be a lady archaeologist. In Egypt, she meets Sir Brograve Beauchamp, her future husband.

The story begins with Evelyn as an old woman in the 1970s. After suffering a stroke, she returns home with her husband to find a woman with questions about the excavation of the tomb. An ancient account of all the items in Tutankhamun's tomb lists several items that weren't found in Howard Carter's catalog. As Eve is the last living person who was present, she hopes to find out the whereabouts of the items.

The mystery of the items unfolds in a story alternating between Eve's early twenties in the 1920s and her recovering from the stroke in the 1970s. Gaps in the elder Eve's memory allow for the mystery of the items' whereabouts to be drawn out to its conclusion.

This novel gives the reader all of the information about the curse surrounding those involved with the disturbance of King Tut's tomb. This increases the drama by adding the supernatural without explicitly saying that the curse is factual.

The book is slow to start as it begins with Eve's struggles in the hospital while recovering from the stroke. When Egypt is introduced as a setting (and basically as another character), the pace begins to quicken.

This is the first audiobook I recall listening to that's narrated by Imogen Church. She is a good narrator for British characters as she is proficient in the accent.

Recommended for fans of historical fiction and Egyptology.

Gill Paul is a full-time fiction and non-fiction author who formerly worked in publishing. She lives in Scotland.

Publisher: Willam Morrow (print); HarperAudio

Narrator: Imogen Church

Running Time: 11 hours, 32 minutes

Length: 384 pages

Release Date: September 7, 2021

I received an electronic audio recording of this title from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I also received a digital audio recording of this title from the publisher through Libro.fm as a librarian review copy. I read the latter edition.