Van Dine, SS - The Scarab Murder Case (1929)

The Scarab Murder Case succeeds best as an example of Van Dine's storytelling skill. An elaborate murder investigation takes place in a museum of Egyptology, and its many details and complex unrolling plot hold the reader's interest. There is also a great deal of well done material on ancient Egyptian art. The solution is both a bit obvious, and very implausible. Even here, however, Van Dine pleases with his numerous, carefully thought through details. So while not a classic of the puzzle plot, it is an atmospheric and fun to read book. Parts of the solution remind one of Ellery Queen's The Dutch Shoe Mystery (1931), and it stands as part of the cultural background of that book. It also reminds one somewhat of Queen's later successor to Dutch Shoe, The Chinese Orange Mystery (1934). The in depth murder investigation is also directly ancestral to the even more complex sleuthing at the crime scene in Queen's books.

Mike Grost

Philanthropist Benjamin H. Kyle is found murdered in a private museum run by Egyptologist Dr Mindrum Bliss. Philo Vance becomes involved when Donald Scarlett, a British college friend now working for Dr Bliss, arrives in a terrible bate. Scarlett had gone to the museum, discovered Kyle's body, and then left in haste because he did not want to get involved. He has come to Vance for help.

DA John Markham and his police department cohorts are soon on the job, assisted by Vance. It transpires Kyle was funding Bliss' Egyptian expeditions and when found is clutching a financial document drawn up by Bliss, whose scarab cravat pin is on the floor nearby. It looks bad, especially given the only fingerprints on the statuette that crushed Kyle's head belong to Bliss, and so does a shoe with a bloody sole. Is it an all too obvious attempt to pin the murder on him? If so, why?

Suspects include half-Egyptian Mrs Meryt-Amen Bliss, who is a lot younger than her husband, and her Egyptian servant Anupu Hani, who insists Dr Bliss' excavations are sacrilegious tomb plunderings. Assistant curator Robert Salveter, Kyle's nephew, not only seems overly interested in Mrs Bliss but will receive a large inheritance under Kyle's will. The servants seem a shifty pair as well -- Dingle, the cook, who hints she may know more than she lets on, and butler Brush, who goes about looking terrified.

My verdict: The Scarab Murder Case is a book or two into the Vance series and his verbal embroidery has toned down considerably although still retaining his distinctive "voice", while the narrator's footnotes proliferate as usual. Markham is now a personal friend of Vance's, remaining rather a Doubting Thomas when it comes to the psychology of criminals, Vance's preferred method of solving crimes. Fortunately Vance is extremely knowledgeable in matters ancient Egyptian, which also comes in very handy in this instance. Those keen on Egyptology will enjoy certain nuggets of interest strewn here and there, although overall the pace of the novel is slow. I guessed the identity of the culprit and suspect many readers will too, but as for proving it, ah, that is a task only Philo Vance could accomplish, and accomplish it he does despite the clouds of ever-present cigarette smoke and various devilish machinations.

E-text

Mary R

See also: http://onlydetect.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/s-s-van-dine-the-scarab-murder-case-1930/