The Weighing Of The Heart

by Jane Thynne

London in the glittering twenties. Iris Barrington, the daughter of a rich American industrialist, lives a luxurious but lonely existence. Her mother is dead, her father Elmer is interested only in his art collection and his building projects. Beneath her conventional life, with its parties and its craze for all things Egyptian, she longs for escape. When Samuel Dux comes into her life, fresh from the excavation of Tutankhamen's tomb, she sees her chance. But Samuel brings with him a troubling secret, one that stems from a dark moment in Howard Carter's discovery of the Pharaoh's tomb. It is a secret that threatens his own future, and that of Iris, too. An enthralling love story that spans the world of the 1920's, from London's high society and its artistic life, to the excavations of Lord Carnarvon of Downton Abbey fame, The Weighing Of The Heart is a tale of passion, buried betrayals and devastating truths.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, British Literature, Egypt, Historical Fiction

287 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 3, 2010

About the author

Jane Thynne was born in Venezuela and educated in London. She graduated from Oxford University with a degree in English and joined the BBC as a journalist. She has also worked at The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Independent, as well as for numerous British magazines. She appears as a broadcaster on Radio 4 and Sky TV. She has also written WIDOWLAND under the pen name C.J. Carey.

Reviews

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am reading the Kindle version of this book. I picked it up because I was intrigued by the Egyptian belief that the weighing of the heart of the dead was an important determinant of the afterlife. The bad in the heart must be balanced with the good. At first, I thought "Uugghh, I'll never finish this." However, I've stuck with it, and I'm glad I did. The central premise is the unearthing of King Tut's tomb and the controversial removal of the artifacts from Egypt 'for the pleasure of Europeans.' It also speaks to women in society during the same age and their struggles to overcome the caste of the time. A good read.

[Colin Hulett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mills & Boom meets Pat Barker. Starts well finishes silly

Shame really could have been better. Tried to cover too many based

[Amber · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sounds like a great idea - Egyptian digs, Britain in the '20s, the discovery of King Tut. But it just doesn't work. The characters were pretty stale. You know Samuel is haunted by a terrible occurrence in Egypt, and it seems anti-climatic when you find out what happened due to all the build-up. There are a lot of characters with potentially overlapping lives, but you wait so long for the dramatic intersection to occur that it becomes totally distracting. Not recommened

[Giorgia · Rating 2 out of 5]

La trama c'entra poco niente con la storia. Se volevano mettere una trama interessante per attirare gente, ci sono riusciti, peccato che poi è tutt'altro.