5 stars
First Sentence: It began in West Virginia, at the junction of two roads half a mile out of the little village of Arroyo.
Thoughts: This edition of The Egyptian Cross Mystery accepted the “Tell me you were published in the 1960s without saying you were published in the 1960s” challenge and passed with flying colors. Not only is the front cover in the style of the later years of that decade*, but so is the back:
The original book, however, was published in 1932 which is my way of telling you that summary was written by lying liars who lie. Oh, there is a nudist colony in the book, but it’s only a small subplot. Also there was no “swinging.” Adultery yes, but no spouse-swapping. Still, sex sells and books with nekkid ladies on the covers sell even more so there you go.
The real focus of the story is, of course, murder. There are four of them. The first takes place in Arroyo, West Virginia, on Christmas Eve. A man was found decapitated and crucified on a street sign. An investigation of his pockets reveals him to be the local schoolteacher, Andrew Van. Ellery got involved when he and his father passed through Arroyo on their way back from a police conference in Chicago. Ellery was intrigued by the murder, but Inspector Queen was tired and wanted to get back home. So he went on ahead while Ellery stuck around for the inquest.
The inquest proved to be a parade of weird characters ranging from the usual Appalachian stereotypes, including Ol’ Pete the local Weird Mountain Man, to a legitimate nutcase. The nut was a faux-Egyptian priest calling himself Harakt who was looking for converts to his sun religion. He had employed a man named Velja Krosac as his business manager. Krosac had been seen around town right before the murder. Not only that, he was asking specifically about Andrew Van. Then Ellery had a revelation. He stood up in the middle of the inquest and pointed out that the position the body was found in was very significant. By being crucified, it was in a cross shape, but by removing the head it was in a position similar to an Egyptian cross! Gasp! Shock! Banging gavels! Order in the court!
Anyway, it was determined that Krosac had committed the murder and a manhunt was immediately called.
Months pass. No one finds Krosac. Then Ellery gets a postcard from an old friend of his, Professor Yardley, who wants Ellery to visit him for the summer. To tempt him further, Yardley tells Ellery that Thomas Brad, his neighbor across the street, had just been murdered. Not only murdered, but decapitated and crucified on a totem pole in his back yard.** Ellery hops in his Dusenberg and speeds over to Yardley’s coastal retreat.
As soon as he arrives he inspects the scene for clues. There’s nothing there but a red checker. In the house he and the local constabulary question Brad’s family and entourage. They explain that Brad was a dealer in Oriental rugs and they had contacted his business partner Stephen Megara who was supposedly on his way back. They also let Ellery into the library where he found Brad’s fancy-schmancy checkerboard abandoned in the middle of a game. He was an avid checker player, it turns out, and had played against the Checker Champion of America himself at Christmas! Oo-la-la!
While they wait for Megara to return, Yardley tells Ellery that he was wrong about the Egyptian cross thing back in West Virginia. What he was thinking of was the tau cross. The Egyptian cross is the ankh which would have required leaving the head on.
To distract himself from the disappointment of being wrong, Ellery observes the drama on an island across the bay. Some weird sun-worshiping nudist cult has set up there and is upsetting the neighbors. Especially Jonah Lincoln, Brad’s business manager, whose sister Hester has flung off her clothes and joined them. Lincoln thinks she did it because she’s infatuated with Paul Romaine, the right-hand man of the head of the cult. And who is leading the cult? Why it’s our old friend from Arroyo, Harakht! Turns out he’s an Egyptologist who had a touch of the sunstroke and lost his marbles in the desert. So he’s harmless and his cult is only there to add a bit of complication and titillation to the main story.
Finally Megara shows up and clarifies a few things. Turns out he, Van, and Brad are all brothers from Montenegro (which had recently been swallowed up by Yugoslavia). Their family name was really Tvar and they were known back in their home country for a long-running feud against another local family, the Krosacs. Now there is only one Krosac left, Velja, and he’s out for revenge.
Can Ellery stop Krosac before he gets the remaining Tvar brother? What does Ol’ Pete really know about what happened in West Virginia? Who are the next two victims? What clues are hidden in plain sight on Brad’s checker board? And will Ellery get a top for the Dusenberg after driving back and forth from New York to West Virginia in the rain?
*1969 to be precise.
**There is a pointless subplot about whether the artifact is properly called a pole or a post that goes on for way too long.
The Eclectic Reviewer 