Assassinio nel Museo Egizio: The Scarab Murder Case (S.S. Van Dine, 1930)

This article analyzes a detective novel set in New York in a private museum of Egyptian antiquities. Philo Vance, an amateur detective, is gifted with an instinctively accurate judgement of people and is extraordinarily versatile and cultured. Thanks to his profound knowledge of Egyptology and psychology, Vance eventually discovers the culprit of a murder. The novel is meaningful in its own right, but also deserves study because it is a valuable testimony to the Egyptomania prevalent in the United States in the late 1920s. Furthermore, ancient Egypt is not just an attractive setting, but an integral part of the plot and the entire novel takes place in the museum according to units of time and action. Finally, the article analyzes the constant references to ancient Egypt and the role of many real scholars referred to as colleagues or teachers of the novel’s characters.