Egyptology Mayhem
Review of the Avarang Kindle eBook edition (May 30, 2023) of the Scribner’s hardcover original (1930).

But surely I could have had not the slightest idea or suspicion of what was actually about to befall us. It was far too appalling and too bizarre for the casual imagination. It lifted us out of the ordinary routine of daily experience and dashed us into a frowsty, miasmic atmosphere of things at once incredible and horrifying - things fraught with the seemingly supernatural black magic of a Witches' Sabbat. Only, in this instance it was the mystic and fantastic lore of ancient Egypt - with its confused mythology and its grotesque pantheon of beast-headed gods - that furnished the background.

I'm reading too many of the Philo Vance series (1926-1939) after discovering them during my survey of the Golden Age of Crime writing. I grabbed a package deal from Kindle where they were about $1.33 Cdn each. So now I've got all 12 to deal with. But I've noticed a pattern in the last few which has made them become predictable and which has also led into Unsatisfactory Ending Alert™ territory. Somewhat spoilery summary: The apparently innocent but most obvious on-site suspect is in fact the actual culprit, even if it takes a long time to reveal their modus operandi + the culprit escapes a final confrontation & criminal justice in some way (accidental death, suicide, etc.). I've read two further novels into the series than I have yet reviewed so that I know this is proving to be the rule and not the exception.

The Scarab Murder Case finds amateur sleuth Vance pulled into yet another investigation alongside District Attorney Markham and Homicide Sergeant Heath with his personal 'Watson' & lawyer / assistant S.S. Van Dine in tow to document the proceedings. The wealthy benefactor of various Egyptology expeditions is found dead in a private museum underneath a statue of Sakhmet (aka Sekhmet) with a Scarab amulet beside the body. Was it an accident or murder? Some say it is fate and retribution for disturbing the tombs of the Pharoahs. Others say there is a monetary motive behind the act. Only Philo Vance can separate the false clues from the reality.

There is an enormous amount of Eqyptology trivia from the 1920s period which is communicated throughout this book, often through the helpful footnotes provided by Van Dine. They read with a high degree of authenticity giving the impression of a great deal of research. The overwhelming quantity of factual material is used as a distraction from the motives of the culprit and I've noticed this in the other books as well (physics, mathematics & chess in The Bishop Murder Case, dog breeding in The Kennel Murder Case, tropical fish & dragon legends in The Dragon Murder Case, etc.). Philo Vance is improbably an amateur expert in all of these areas. Still, the banter is entertaining and the explanations are clever.

See cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1e/ScarabMurderCase.jpg
Front cover of the original Scribner’s first edition (1930). Image sourced from Wikipedia.

Trivia and Links

The Scarab Murder Case was adapted as the same-titled film The Scarab Murder Case (1936) directed by Michael Hankinson and starring Wilfrid Hyde-White as Philo Vance. The setting of the film is moved to England with the American amateur detective assisting Scotland Yard in a museum murder investigation. The film is considered lost as no prints have been located. There is an archived article from the British Film Institute under the heading of its being one of the BFI’s Most Wanted lost films which you can read here.

Willard Huntington Wright aka S.S. Van Dine is also the author of the Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories. ( )

117. The Scarab Murder Case, by S. S. Van Dine (read 1943) This is the second of three Van Dine books I read as a freshman in high school. Nothing remains in my memory of the book. ( )