Marsh, Richard - The Beetle

How could I have lived this long without having heard of, let alone read, this Victorian crackerjack?
And this is a superb page-turner! Part thriller, part shocker, in its day a massive bestseller, outselling Stoker’s Dracula at one point, this novel is riddled with Victorian anxieties.
Fear of immigrants, of new cults, fear of the New Woman, of rising class strife. Darker still, the fear of the “other”, in this case a relation to the scarab.
Four narratives, one following the other, tell the horror of the sinister visitor from the East, single mindedly pursuing an influential politician while threatening an upper class maiden.
Each section overlaps and adds narrative, yet clouds the mystery. In addition, with each section the pace ratchets higher. The last part is a galloping, exciting chase.
The edition I read, Broadview Press, contains a wealth of extras about the New Woman, the Victorian fascination with Egypt, and the unease that was so pervasive throughout the fin de siècle.
A thumping good read! This makes me curious about other Marsh titles.