Jemimaduck London, United Kingdom

I've given this book one star because there is no facility for giving no stars at all. It's a long time since I've had the misfortune of coming across such a poorly written, mind-numbingly boring and thick tome.
And that daft little reason why the grand-daughter broke off relations with her grandfather (the one who gets killed in scene one)! I ask you! (To cut a terribly, terribly long story short, this girl gets a bit miffed because she sees her aged and greying grandparents make love! Come on! Let the old folks have a bit of fun, sweetie! True - seeing they were doing it on an altar surrounded by hooded figures (Were these chanting? Who cares!) might have been a bit iffy, but there you are!)
The book is what is called a "page-turner" and the turning of every page was groan-worthy. It had all the literary pleasure of something churned out by a (not too) cleverly programmed computer.
However, I'll give Dan Brown's Marketing Team FIVE stars - they did a superb job of bringing this mediocre effort to the pinnacles of popularity.
A recommended read for all those who have grown out of "Noddy" but can't quite get around "The Famous Five" as yet.

This is a most intriguing book about the conservation of the dead - and if you’re now thinking “Egyptian Mummies” then stop right there, for mummification has been going on all over the world, right throughout history and it cannot be excluded that someone somewhere is being mummified even as you read these words.
Heather Pringle opens the doors to a world most of us would choose to avoid for as long as possible: the world of the dead. From putrefaction, to embalming with all the State pomp and parade, to accidental mummification. From the emptying out of Tutankhamen to keeping Lenin rosy and fresh in a glass box for decades: it’s all here – and never macabre.
Written in the best style of a village gossip who lets you in on the tiny little secrets that you never thought you’d want to know but that very quickly become addictive, the book is a real page turner. It’s even illustrated, though I quietly snipped the photos out of my copy when the image of a little blue-eyed girl in fairly modern dress started to haunt me unceasingly: she’s a mummy too.