''The Black Camel'' (1929) is the fourth of the
Charlie Chan novels by
Earl Derr Biggers.
Plot summary
It tells the story of a
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
star (Shelah Fane), who is stopping in
Hawaii after she finished shooting a film
on location in
Tahiti. She is murdered in the pavilion of her rental house in Waikiki during her stay. The story behind her murder is linked with the three-year-old murder of another Hollywood actor and also connected with an enigmatic
psychic named Tarneverro. Chan, in his position as a detective with the
Honolulu Police Department, "investigates amid public clamor demanding that the murderer be found and punished immediately. "Death is a black camel that kneels unbidden at every gate. Tonight black camel has knelt here", Chan tells the suspects."
[Roseman, Mill ''et al.'' ''Detectionary''. New York: Overlook Press, 1971. ]
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
It was adapted into a
film of the same name based on the book and released in 1931. This was the second of a series of sixteen Chan films to feature
Warner Oland as the sleuth.
References
2. In
Robert A. Heinlein's 1970 novel ''
I Will Fear No Evil'', the kneeling black camel reference is employed as a euphemism for death near the start of chapter 2.
3. In Robert A. Heinlein's first published work, a short story called "Lifeline", Dr. Pinero says "I can tell you when the Black Camel will kneel at your door."
External links
*
''The Black Camel'' Film detailsa
*
1929 American novels
Charlie Chan novels
Novels set in Hawaii
American novels adapted into films
Bobbs-Merrill Company books
{{1920s-mystery-novel-stub