area rugs
the black camel
death is the black camel that kneels unbidden at every gate . this is what charlie chan tells the guests of the unfortunate shelah fane a glamorous hollywood movie star who has been murdered while on location beachside in honolulu . in this fourth novel in the series the detective confronts his most perplexing case of his long and illustrious career . chan is aided by a mysterious fortune teller named tarneverro the great . it appears that miss fane had summoned tarneverro to honolulu as she strongly believes in his mystical powers . she needs to decide whether or not to marry a certain alan jaynes with whom she had a torrid affair during the shooting of her movie in tahiti . she is tormented by her past and afraid of the future and can not decide what to do . there is the question of another murder that happened in hollywood three years before . denny mayo a wellknown actor was murdered in his house and there appears to be a connection between miss fane and tarneverro in this unsolved murder . a number of suspects dont have alibis in fanes murder including her costar huntley van horn and the director of the picture val martino . tarneverros alibi is airtight . there is a transient beachcomber who becomes an important witness and a certain stage actor named robert fyfe who is fanes exhusband and true love who happens to be appearing in a production in honolulu at the time . it becomes apparent every time chan seems to be getting close to solving this sensational murder a new wrinkle appears to throw him off . it takes superior sleuthing and with the aid of the honolulu police department chan systematically picks apart this maze of deception surrounding the murder . the movie version of this book came out in 1931 featuring two legendary actors warner orland as charlie chan and bela lugosi as the enigmatic tarneverro the great . this is one of the most ambitious books in the charlie chan series and will have readers clamoring for more .