02818cam a22003613u 4500 76116 UtSlPG 20260610134748.0 m cr n 260607r20251924utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d UtSlPG en iso639-1 PR Freeman, R. Austin (Richard Austin), 1862-1943 The blue scarab Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg, 2025 1 online resource : multiple file formats text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier Release date is 2025-05-19 The blue scarab -- The case of the white foot-prints -- The New Jersey sphinx -- The touchstone -- A fisher of men -- The stolen ingots -- The funeral pyre. an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer The blue scarab by R. Austin Freeman is a collection of detective stories written in the early 20th century. The cases follow the medico-legal sleuth Dr. John Thorndyke and his colleague-narrator Dr. Jervis as they solve curious crimes with forensic science, precise observation, and ingenious reasoning. Expect rational puzzles tinged with antiquarian lore, family secrets, and cryptic clues. The opening of this collection presents two cases. First, a rural robbery draws Thorndyke into the Blowgrave family’s legend of a vanished uncle and lost jewels: a deed-box is stolen during a decoy fire, its contents mysteriously returned except for a blue scarab; using the scarab’s “hieroglyphs,” Thorndyke deciphers English directions, corrects for compass variation, and locates a buried skeleton and a chest of gems, while unmasking a grasping cousin as the thief via typewriter and fingerprint clues. Next, an apparent suicide at a Margate boarding house turns suspicious when Jervis and a local doctor find white paint footprints of a barefoot intruder with no little toes and signs of entry by a stack-pipe; Jervis reasons toward a northern, possibly seafaring suspect (frost-bite or ergot past), with a Swedish visitor and the absent colonial-police husband as potential leads. After a tussle with the police over evidence, Jervis brings his photographs and deductions to London, where he and Thorndyke prepare a fuller, independent investigation. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Originally published: New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1924 London (England) -- Fiction Thorndyke, Doctor (Fictitious character) -- Fiction Physicians -- Fiction Detective and mystery stories, English https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/101864207 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76116 116841 116841