I love Sally Beauman as I have written about in a recent blog, so I was delighted when I realised she had a new book out that I hadn’t read. I was even more delighted when I realised it was about the glory days of Egyptian exploration, given my trip to Egypt earlier this year and the books I read about Howard Carter when I was there (see my Egypt blog).

The Visitors is a really great read. It has a plot structure I really like – an old lady looking back at the end of her life, to, in this case, her life as a girl in the 1920s as an eye witness to the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb. This is such a clever way to write about the discovery and gives you the delicious sensation that you were a fly on the wall as these historic events unfolded. It’s great to be introduced to all the main characters before the discovery is made. Having been to Howard Carter’s house, Luxor and the Valley of the Kings, it is excellent at evoking the heat of the valley and at bringing to life those places as they must have been almost a hundred years ago.

The story is also excellent. Intrigue and mystery swirl around as two little girls act as spies and witness the moments before a society murder. Lucy sees the night-time unsanctioned visit to the tomb by Carter, Lord Carnavon and his daughter, which back in the real world was only discovered to have taken place many years after the fact.

There is a sadness and inevitability about the fate of the people close to Lucy, and the parts of the book of her in her old age still very much living in the past are beautifully told and for me were the most poignant of all.

This is a really great read, particularly if you are interested in Egyptology, or just love a really well told escape to times past.