Secrets of a Sun King by Emma Carroll

This story starts in London in the year 1922, and the main character is a schoolgirl named Lillian, or Lil for short. Lil has won a scholarship to a prestigious school called St Kilda’s, even though she does not like school very much and has very few friends. She does, however, like to listen to her Grandad, Ezra, tell stories of travelling the world in his youth. Of all the many different countries he has visited, Egypt has always fascinated him the most. He passes this love to his granddaughter.
Lillian’s grandfather suddenly falls ill and is taken into hospital where his condition deteriorates. During this time a parcel arrives for him at his house, and is found by his granddaughter who has gone there to feed the cat. Curiosity prompts Lillian to open the package, in which she finds a vase-like vessel with a stopper shaped like the head of the Egyptian jackal-god Anubis. The man who sent the jar was a colleague of Ezra many years ago, before ill-feeling developed between them. He had found an ancient text within the vessel and had set about translating it, but died under fantastic and inexplicable circumstances before he could bring it to show Ezra.
The words of her grandfather coupled with the partially translated text within the jar convince Lillian that a curse is at work, and that what is happening is also related to the imminent opening of a tomb in the Valley of the Kings by the archeologist Howard Carter.
When Lil meets a brother and sister of about her age at the British Museum, she is afforded an unhoped-for opportunity to take the jar back to Egypt in person, and therefore to put an end to the curse.
This is a pretty solid story with a principal mystery to solve and a mission to accomplish. Despite the many historical details, the plot does not get bogged down but moves along at an acceptable pace. The characters are generally well-drawn and convincing, and the dynamics of race and gender are explored in a sensitive and thought-provoking manner.
The content of the story also shows that true stories of humanity and vulnerability lie behind the façade of royalty and fabulous riches. The archaeologists would be ecstatic to read the text in the jar, but Lil and her friends know that it would be wrong to allow them to do so. Howard Carter is painted in a negative light, since the general opinion nowadays is that he fabricated evidence which would give him the leverage to transport the treasures of Tutankhamen out of Egypt. In the same way, it is implied that artifacts and messages from the past should only be curated by people willing to treat them responsibly while showing respect to the original owners.


Where the story fails, however, is in its overuse of coincidence and in the way in which everything falls into place a little too easily. Thus, problems which appear insurmountable are quickly overcome, and even the final objective is accomplished without much trouble. There are also some very unrealistic passages, for example when a young boy untrained in ancient languages translates a large portion of an ancient Egyptian text into English. This may work for readers of middle-grade age, but it means that this book really cannot be read on different levels, and that adult readers are likely to find it ultimately unrewarding and somewhat trite.



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I read this because I love the audiobook's narrator (Victoria Fox) and really liked the last book I read by Carroll, Letters From the Lighthouse. This one is set post-WWI, and involves friendship, family secrets and the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

Lil’s grandfather is in hospital and she becomes convinced that his recovery depends upon her solving the mystery surrounding the package sent to him by a famous and now-deceased Egyptologist. I predicted the twists, but I can see how this would strongly appeal to children who want a blend of history, adventure and mystery with a hint of fantasy. (Where was this when I was twelve?)

Now Grandad was often saying random things, which was one reason why I thought him so splendid. His cleverness didn’t come from books or colleges but from going out into the world and getting grubby with it. ( )