Books - The Scarab Murder Case

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	Books - The Scarab Murder Case

The Scarab Murder Case (1929) succeeds best as an example of S. S. Van Dine's storytelling skill. In this book, Philo Vance 's 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.

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