In the popular imagination Ancient Egypt is seen as an idyllic place where, for 300 years, wise Pharaohs governed a peaceful and plentiful kingdom. Historians, although sceptical of the truth of this image, have always struggled to penetrate it to discover the realities of life for ordinary Egyptians. That is until now. Joyce Tyldesley's book carefully unmasks the Ancient Egyptian crimes and criminals. She meticulously recreates a series of crimes, from grave robbing, false embalming, necrophilia and bestiality, to a recreation of the murder of Tutankhamun (which reassesses the evidence for his murder and rejects it). She also introduces us to some of the inhabitants of the town of Dair et Medine, the dwelling place of 50 craftsmen and their families who worked exclusively in the nearby Valley of the Kings. Their crimes and misdemeanours were carefully recorded and give a vivid insight into Ancient Egyptian attitudes towards sex and death, property and punishment.