The Embalmer's Daughter

The Mummifier's Daughter #1

by Nathaniel Burns

Ancient Egypt, 1233 BC

Neti-Kerty’s reputation as Egypt’s first female mummifier has apparently reached all the way to the Pharaoh. Neti-Kerty and Shabaka, Special Investigator and Prefect of Thebes, are astonished to be summoned to the palace of Ramses II to investigate the sudden death of the Vizier Khay. Thanks to her powers of deduction and knowledge of the dead, Neti soon determines that something is amiss.

As more people disappear during the investigation, the situation increasingly gets out of hands and before long Neti and Shabaka find themselves peering into the deepest recesses of the human soul....

Princess of Egypt returns us to a land steeped in gods, god-kings, ritual and magic. It paints for the reader a detailed picture of Pharaonic Egypt in all its shadowed glory. Faithfully recreating one of the most remarkable eras in Egypt’s history, author Nathaniel Burns weaves a shudderingly ominous tale of ancient Egypt’s mysteries revealed through a cast of characters the modern reader will recognize even though millenia have passed.

So light up the incense, sit close to the light and draw back the curtains on the shadowed past with this gripping tale of love and intrigue among the living and the dead in one of history’s most intriguing civilizations.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Historical, Egypt, Young Adult, Audiobook, Crime

258 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 21, 2013

Reviews

[Iset · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was initially intrigued by this book. The idea of an embalmer using their skills to solve crime seemed like a good premise. Tie that in with a gem smuggling operation and it would seem like one has a good plot in hand. However, it was the execution that let this book down. None of the problems with the book were huge issues, they were all small niggles, but together they added up:

- The text is peppered with grammatical errors, misspellings, and even the spellings of characters’ names changes throughout. This is rather distracting, and doesn’t exactly look professional.

- The author seems to have fallen into the trap of trying too hard to avoid using the word “said”. Characters too often “demanded”, “challenged”, “professed”, “deadpanned”, “decreed” and so on. Sometimes they “challenged” or “professed” three or four times in just a couple of paragraphs. This sticks out like a sore thumb precisely because those words are not frequently used, and thus appear strangely overused here. Key tip for authors: it’s okay to use “said” to describe character dialogue.

- Speaking of the dialogue, it felt a little off. Not glaringly so, but enough to be noticeable. Characters persistently said things such as “not really”, “sure”, and “are you okay” was so overused, every other scene seemed to have “are you okay”. Now, it’s not glaringly anachronistic. Imagine characters in a historical novel describing things as “groovy”, “righteous”, “wicked” or “sick” to mean cool. Those words are instantly dateable to particular modern eras. “Sure”, “not really” and “okay” are so prevalently used that they don’t immediately scream a particular decade, but they are distinctly reminiscent of 20th century and 21st century speech patterns. Especially “okay”, which entered common usage in the 19th century. Again, it’s not a glaring thing, but “okay” just doesn’t feel like it belongs in the mouths of ancient Egyptian characters.

- The antagonists were a little too villainous. Beating servants, throwing screaming fits in front of strangers, utterly without scruples, lacking any redeeming points whatsoever.

- The mystery is given away too early. There’s a scene written from the perspective of the unknown murderer, and whilst the murderer isn’t named his thoughts and actions make it perfectly clear who it is. This came at 41% into the book. This is too soon, it gives the game away too early. Tension needed to be built higher by waiting to reveal this twist. The pacing felt a little off too, talking about how the reveal occurred too early and tension needed to be built.

It all felt a bit too slapdash and unpolished, is how I would sum up the issues in this book. Good idea, but unpolished execution.

[Subrata Chakraborty · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Mummifiers Daughter” is a story of mystery of missing hearts from dead body

“The Mummifiers Daughter” is the first book of the five book Mysteries of Ancient Egypt Series. This book is written in the backdrop of a time during the rule of Ramses-II (1279-1294 BC), when he was shifting his capital from Thebes to Pi-Ramesses.

This book centers around the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians around the process of mummification. They used to mummify the dead by removing all internal organs including the brain but used to leave the heart at its place. They used preserve and beautify the body with the heart for the afterlife. After burial the dead used to be presented in the Hall of Trust for a trial by Osiris for their deeds of the previous life in front of forty-two gods and goddesses. The heart of the dead used to be weighed against the feather of Maat, if the heart was heavier it used to be eaten by Ammit and the person used to be denied after life. But if his deeds are good and the heart is lighter the guy will get an afterlife.

The heroine of the book is Neti-Kerty, daughter of a professional embalmer, who learns the tricks of the trade from her father. And the villain is Thoth, the slave of an evil trader Ma-Nefer. Thoth becomes a serial killer as he kills good people and steals their heart and preserves them with the hope of replacing them after death with his own to get better judgement and to be more powerful in afterlife.

The plot thickens with the brutal killing of the parents of Neti with missing heart and several more. The Pharaoh’s prefect Shabaka lands in Thebes to investigate the missing mined gemstones of Pharaoh, but lands into investigating the one after other brutal murders. He is assisted by very competent Neti, who is disliked by the town’s people and Mayor Pa-Nasi. They discover the emeralds being packed inside the dead bodies during mummification by some embalmer and finally they are able to trace the serial killer Thoth to the utter surprise of Neti. Finally missing hearts are recovered and restored to the owner’s body and Neti’s parents get a good and conventional burial.

Nathaniel could have mentioned Thebes as Waset which was the actual name of the city during that period. Also I am utterly surprised when in Chaper-2 at one place he writes “When Neti-Kerty and Shabaka visits Asim’s house to question his wife Tei-ka, she offers them tea”. Tea was not known in Ancient Egypt during Ramses’s time, the common drink was beer. But otherwise the book and its mystery is well knit by Nathaniel and the reader goes through the suspense till the end. The book is not very long and is never boring. If you like ancient Egypt and its tradition this mystery book fits well there and you will enjoy.

[Vanessa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got this as a free download and thank god for that. I adore hist fic. I mean crazy about it, get giddy when I come across a great one, adore it. So, after reading about 50 pages in, I had to stop w. this one. I found myself cringing at the anachronisms between modern day slang speech and the setting of ancient Egypt. I've read Egyptian focus hist fic, and those writers at least use relevant terms to the culture. I just had to stop and move on. There are too many other well written, great concept books out there to see try to force myself to see if this has any bit of redemption.

[Dani Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I went through the previous reviews of this book, trying to discover if there was a reason for the scads of mistakes, and did not find a satisfying answer. Someone mentioned it was the transfer of formats that caused the issues; regardless it was still the most error filled e-book I've ever read. Names were misspelled literally between lines and at one point a completely different name was substituted for another. It was incredibly difficult to get through; I had to shut off my brain because if I hadn't, I was going to loose my mind 10 times on a page before understanding the actual plot . . . which has some pretty major holes. I'm going to make the assumption that the plot will be filled in with later installments, but I won't be reading them, for my sanity.

Neti is the daughter of an embalmer, an important skill within Thebes but Neti is a woman, and her induction into the profession is scorned. Through practicing the craft with her father, Neti has picked up some ability in determining the basics of forensic science. Neti has teamed up with Shabaka, an adviser sent from the pharaoh to investigate some missing precious stones, and apparently any murders that occur along the way. Early in the story, Neti returns home from a night of investigating a poisoning (never explained) to find her parents with their hearts removed. Now Neti must investigate the murders of her own parents while battling a disturbing addition to her father's will. Despite knowing that a local trader, Ma-Nefer, is a gross swindler, Neti's father has borrowed money for tools and with his death, Neti must marry Ma-Nefer to close that debt (what?!).

Tons of questions left at the conclusion of this story. I am aware that this was just the first novel in a multi-novel series but I don't think that I've ever read a story where the majority of issues were not explained before the conclusion. I have given this story the rating that I did based on potential alone. A female, crime fighter in Ancient Egypt owed to her embalming skills is a pretty entertaining concept . . . this was a let down and if errors send a chill down your spine, this is not the story for you, at least not the Kindle version.

[moxieBK · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Mummifier’s Daughter: The First Case for Neti-Kerty (Mysteries of Ancient Egypt Book 1) [Kindle Unlimited] — Nathaniel Burns (8 chapters + Epilogue) March 15-22, 2020

I pick this book up more as an impulse download. I have so many other books in my “To-Read” pile, but I somehow always default to my Kindle Unlimited books. Seriously, there are some really good books in this program. If you haven’t checked out any of those books, please give it a whirl. You might be surprised how well these stories are written. They come in all reading lengths too!

Anyway, Neti-Kerty is an embalmer in Ancient Egypt, when women were not in that line of business. Trained by her father, she is very skilled and adapted at this work.

Coming home late from a death summoning but the predict, she finds her mother and father murdered; her father’s will indicates she must marry an old codger that keeps an old school friend a slave, and is generally considered mean to everyone.

The predict and her father’s old friend assist and guide her. Who is the murderer? As body starts piling up, Neti and her friends must solve it before she is the next victim. This story was written lovely and genuine by the author. Questions are answered, and the ending is refreshing.

The plot is tightly written, with no filler. A well written, enjoyable historical fiction, I will be sure to read more books in this series.

There were some grammatical errors (two periods instead of one, for example,) and name inconsistencies. May bother some, but I looked over it for the setting and style of the plot.

Five stars.

[Dyana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the plot of this book because it had an original storyline. I also love historical fiction, the settings (ancient Egypt this time), and a mystery to solve. I guess the theme is embalming, and it's somewhat of a police procedural with a hint of romance. But...what this book needs is a really GOOD editor which could have made this a five star book for me. The flaws are glaring and intrusive in the reading of this book. They include grammar and punctuation errors, poorly constructed sentences, misspellings, and wrong verb tenses. Some examples include: herd for herb, quail for quill, bark for barque, one person's name was spelled in three different ways, too many "okay's" and different six to ten letter words for saying "said", colons instead of semi-colons, etc. And drinking tea - really? This takes place during the rule of Ramses II or somewhere around 1233BC.

Neti-Kerty's father taught her everything he knows about embalming. She understands the dead and knows bodies and how they work plus she respects them. She will be considered the 1st female embalmer and is waiting for her certification to practice. This has caused the town people to call her "The Witch of the Dead", slander her name, and shun her. She is on her way to the river for a bath after assisting her father all day when she's summoned by Shabaka, the Nubian Prefect of Thebes which is a position authorized by the Pharaoh Ramesses II himself. Why did Pharaoh send him to Thebes? He's also discriminated against because of the color of his skin so they both share a kinship in that the town doesn't hold much regard for either. He has summoned her to "read" the body and the room he died in so she can help Shabaka solve the murder. The Mayor, Pa-Nasi, rushes in and demands to know why she is there. He considers what she does as sorcery. She declares the victim was murdered by poison, and Pa-Nasi becomes enraged and wants her gone.

When Neti arrives home, she smells the overwhelming odor of blood and finds her parents dead and their hearts cut out. This puts a curse on the bodies, and they can't have a proper burial until the hearts are found and replaced in the bodies. Otherwise, they will be condemned to the underworld. The only thing missing is her mother's amulet. The next day Suten Anu, the local tax scribe and her father's old friend, visits Neti and brings her father's will. Earlier he couldn't convince her father to alter it to take better care of his daughter. Her father leaves his embalming tools to her and she is to marry Ma-Nefer as security and compensation for the payment of goods her father ordered, and debts still owing to him. This Ma-Nefer, a trader, has a face of a toad, the manners of a pig, and is cruel and malicious. The only alternative she has is to get her license, and then she would have the option to pay back the outstanding amount to buy her way out of the marriage. Suten Anu will try and stall the proceedings until her license comes.

Neti confronts Ma-Nefer about paying off her debt with her belongings and her mother's jewels, but he says NO. He reveals a secret that stuns her and changes everything. She also has a childhood friend in a boy named Thoth and Ma-Nefer's slave whom he beats regularly. When the estate is settled he will claim her and treat her as his slave like Thoth. Tei-ka, the wife of her father's best friend Asim, who's also an embalmer, tells her the whole story behind the secret. Then a young mason who was kind to Neti is murdered and his heart is cut out. Later, a slave girl is murdered with the same results. What is the motive for these chilling murders? Will Neti be next? A lender named Kadurt demands a huge payment for burial arrangements that Neti's father asked for. This isn't usually done before the actual burial. He sends men to haul off her furniture and her precious wooden door. Luckily, Suten Anu arrives and says he will check into the matter. Kadurt is known for forging documents. Other incidents include:
- Who is the new embalmer in town that nobody knows and who likes to work alone? What is he putting in his bodies?
- Why did Pharaoh specify that Shabaka function independently from the mayor who has his nose in everybody's business? Why are there guards at the gates of the city checking all incoming and outgoing merchandize?
- There is a budding romance between Shabaka and Neti. He tells her why he has been sent to Thebes and they begin to investigate the reason and the murders together.
- The climax takes place at Karnak, a place of temples and Sphinxes.

The book is descriptive which puts one in time and place, and this is the book to read if you want to learn a little about embalming techniques. It's also gory in spots so beware. I will read the next book in the series in hope that a good editor has been found. If not...

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would be 5 stars except ...

I am kind of an English geek. There are misspelled (&/or typos)/misused words, case disagreements, warped syntax...whoever proofread this book should not have been paid.
This is a shame!
This is historically as accurate as we know of ancient Egypt...the female protagonist & her male protagonist cohort, a Nubian (black skinned person) who experiences racial prejudice from the lighter skinned, & at the time primarily Semitic Arabs that formed the majority of Egyptians, the descendents of Ishmael whose father was the same as the father of the Israelites - Abraham.
The female main character is the daughter of an embalmer, very bright, the best student in the village school, & has learned skills from both parents. She has applied for a license to be the first female embalmer in Egypt. Set at the time of Ramesses II (& I did look that up, it is how they're spelling that Pharoah's name after a couple centuries at least of writing it as "Ramses"). There is a discrepancy between the jewels due Pharoah from his mines & what he is getting, & it is centered in Thebes. The Nubian co-protagonist is appointed to find out.
The opening scenes show the widesread prejudice against both main characters as the Nubian prefect summons (& though it is wrotten as "summons" the usage is "summonsing" for present & "summonsed" for past, in this case because it is similar to a summons from a court of law). She reads the bodies by lividity, rigor or lack thereof ("stiffness," which is what they would have called it as "rigor" comes from "rigor mortis," a Latin term created much later in time than the setting of this book, & which means "stiffness of death"). This would be the same time period of the Exodus of the Bible by cirrent estimates based on archeological finds, long before Rome or even Greece conquered Israel, when Israel was about to leave Egypt.
There is a crooked mayor, a crooked merchant, & a henous, deranged (as we larer find out) murderer...when the girl returns home, escorted by the Nubian prefect, she immediately senses something is wrong. She discovers her parents dead in a horrible, bloody scene...they had been knocked out & their hearts cut out, while they were still alive. This is not the first murder of this sort, nor the first shock the female will receive, nor the first threat.
There is a chariot chase after the bad guys when the heart stealing murderer is caught in the act.
This is the first book in the series. The action is excellent, the attention to historical detail fantastic. It is a shame the proofreader either was only hired to proofread the continuity or did not know much of anything about grammar. I don't fault the author. After the many revisions a book undergoes before publication, any author is blinded to errors. I blame whomever was hired to do the grammatical proofreading. They should, as the old military saying goes, back up to get their paycheck. For anyone aware pf proper frammar & usage, those errors detract quite a bit from an excellent story.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good story, BADLY in need of an editor!

In reviewing this book, I was torn between discussing the good part first or getting my annoyance off my chest. I decided to go with the good part. The story, set in ancient Egypt, tells of a young woman, Neti-Kerty, the daughter of an embalmer, who has just found her parents murdered with their hearts cut out and missing. She goes to the pharaoh’s prefect, Shabaka, to tell him. Shabaka asks her, because of her knowledge of the dead, to help him determine the cause of death of another person whose body was just found. While he is trying to help her find her parents’ killer, other similar murders occur in the city. Meanwhile, Neti-Kerty’s fat and cruel neighbor, Ma-Nefer, is pulling all kinds of strings to force her to marry him and to acquire her father’s property, which has passed to her. The author seems to know something about the time period and the customs of the era and is good at setting a scene, so the story was worth reading.

HOWEVER, this book is in dire need of an editor!!! It is quite possibly the worst-written book I have come across yet. There were grammar and punctuation errors galore, poorly constructed sentences, and in one place he managed to misspell his main character’s name. In another, he has her ask for a papyrus and “quail” to write something down (he managed to spell “ quill” right elsewhere). It was not only annoying, it was horribly distracting. I cannot possibly read another book by this author unless he gets an editor or learns to edit his own writing. The 3 stars are for content only.

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story, but had a very hard time reading it. The copy I have is from a German publishing company, I think this is why it has grammatical and formatting errors all over it.
(Story summery) warning spoilers below. (This summery is mostly just for me to help me remember the story)


Neti is a slave who was bought by her "parents". However in that process she was separated from her brother Thoth. Years later she is a skilled embalmer. Her parents are murdered (their hearts ripped out) days later several other people are murdered with the same method. Their hearts are all missing. She and the prefect are investigating these murders and find a new embalmer has been filling the murder victems with precious stones that belong to Pharoh. Turns out this is all being arranged by Ma-Nefer (who happens to own Thoth and is supposed to be Neti's husband because her parents owed him a debt and hadn't paid it off before they died.) He has been arranging for Thoth to kill all these people and steal their hearts and preserve them to switch with Ma's own heart to make sure he gets into the Duat. Turns out Thoth likes this a bit too much and his sister tbh. And he somehow thinks that doing this will make him a god???? And that Neti will help him be a god???? Nah.
They catch Thoth in the act of stealing a heart and chase after him and Ma. They catch Thoth but not Ma. The Prefect tells Neti Pharoh wants to talk to her about what's happend so he and she get on a boat to go see him. But Ma sees and swears revenge.

[Vicky Coughlan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is such a good story marred by all the bad proofreading, bad grammar and all the mistakes in it like the same name written all sort of ways, even Neti-Kerty’s name is spelled differently (eye roll); herds instead of herbs and other stupid mistakes like this. What could’ve been such an enjoyable reading was ruined by all the faults. Did the author even get his book proofread?
If you don’t mind all these errors then go ahead and read this book. As I’ve said, the story line is very good. Shame about the rest...

[CNickerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book with poor proofing

It is regrettable when reading an excellent book is interrupted due to poor editing. The story and characters are good; however many words are not spelled consistently. Also sentences have extra words that proofing should catch. Names should be consistent, plus the correct form of a word should be used. I hope these things can be corrected as the book is worth it.

[Aurélie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neti-Kerty is trying to resolve the cruel double-murder of her parents with the help of prefect Shabaka. As they investigate together to uncover the killer, they stumble upon a huge conspiracy.
This mystery is captivating until the end, and I would not have been able to find out who the killer was. It’s well written, and the preparation for the sequel is well prepared without leaving loose ends. If you love stories during Pharaoh’s time and enjoy mysteries, I highly recommend this one.

[Govno Nichevo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that The Mummifier’s Daughter was a good read. I liked the pace, found the narrative engaging, and the historical context interesting.

The book does need editing with the occasional word missing from a sentence or the wrong word used (eg eye instead of I), but this was a niggle rather than a major problem.

Note, this goodreads book description for this "The Embalmer's Daughter" seems to be confused with a different book.

[Per Bressendorff · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have a principle to try to finish even a bad book, but this was a struggle to finish. The dialogue was so stilted and unnatural, the story line weird, most of the people characteristics overplayed to the extent it was almost a joke. Plenty of better stuff out there, no need to read the next in the series.

[Jemar Velazquez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing story... Definitely enjoyed the historical ties to ancient Egyptian culture. Unfortunately, too many typos and a slew of poor grammar disrupted the flow, making it a difficult read. The ending also left a lot to be desired. I know this author has other books... I just don't know if it's worth investing the time.

[Kathryn Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is just the beginning, of the series of an ancient murder mystery with a yound woman who was raised as an Egyptian. What ws neat she was also raised to be an Enbalmer also. She can read a dead body. She can tell if the body was murdered or of natural causes. This girl is an acient version of Nancy Drew with a hint of a little love interest. It was a great listen.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story . Egyptian names confused me a bit at the start. Because of Kindle search I could get the person in context. There were some editing failures that were annoying while small.

I would read another by this author. It is a part of a series but a standalone book. This gives ME the choice to read the next story.

[Sheffielder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable reading

A well-written story that flows well and reads easily, but let down in a few places by terrible proof-reading of one of the characters' names. However, that's a minor complaint, and one that's easily fixed. Certainly worth reading, and I look forward to reading the next two volumes in the series.

[Vicki Scullion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting mystery. I really liked the premise of an ancient female embalmer in Egypt working forensically to solve murders. I suspect some liberties were taken with historical accuracy and the rather modern dialogue. That said, I intend to read the next book in this series.

[Michael Goldman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting fiction in a generally untapped era

Hard to call this story a mystery,since there is little left to be discovered. However,the use of ancient Egypt is quite fascinating,and gives a look at an uncommon time period

[Erik Sapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow Start

The story is good and ends well. I only gave it 3 stars because the start is very slow. More than once, I considered giving up on the book, but I managed to stick it out until it got better.

[Dee Robb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quick, easy read. Story is intriguing, but this book needs an editor desperately. I am hoping the writing improves in the next book of the series, because I just really want this story to continue.

[Agnes Bullock · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not worth the time to read

With the poor spelling, even poorer grAmmar and syntax, the story was difficult to follow. the story line itself was bland to the point of being boring. No excitement, no interest in the characters and the plot itself was merely thrown together in a haphazard manner

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel as though i have already read this novel, thanks to the book's cover if this Egyptian has 10 fingers my hunch would right. Look forward to reading it soon.

[Virginia Adi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the series.

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun little mystery! I enjoyed it.

[Viola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome

Wonderful ancient practices and characters with highly colorful personalities. Love the atmosphere created by very skillful elaborations. Murders of dark nature...

[Paul Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neti-Kerty - CSI Ancient Egypt

Good story with complex characters. A lot of potential for a good series with the same main characters in various locations.

[Rhonda Bateman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable read...

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Interesting but not well written.