Clyde Burt Clason (1903-1987) was born in Denver, Colorado, where he graduated from the University of Denver and then worked in Chicago as an advertising copywriter and a trade newsletter editor. He published 10 mysteries between 1936 and 1941, all featuring elderly Roman historian Theocritus Lucius Westborough. Clason’s attention was diverted to other pursuits when the war commenced and he did not return to mystery writing, although he did publish more books. For more details, see https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/clason-clyde-burt-1903-1987
In Westborough’s seventh case, Murder Gone Minoan (Doubleday Doran, 1939), he finds himself in southern California on a remote island owned by a department store magnate who is fascinated with the ancient Minoan culture to the point of building a mansion in the Minoan style and acquiring a number of priceless artifacts which probably should be returned to Greece, including a small statuette that has been stolen. Once Westborough is on the island, two murders occur several days apart. The isolation of the island delays communications with the authorities and Westborough has to manage on his own for several hours after each crisis.
The story is drenched with historical and cultural information about the pre-historic Minoans and the reader is subjected to multiple lectures on the subject. I found it tiresome after a bit. About half of the narrative is composed of letters to and from key characters and transcripts of police interviews with members of the house party on the island. An epistolary approach doesn’t always work in crime fiction but here it moves the plot forward effectively and helps round the characters.
On two different pages in the last quarter of the book Clason noted that the reader should be able to solve the mystery at that point. I of course did not and was thoroughly surprised by the culprit. I was also unhappy about Clason’s choice of the second victim, as there are other characters far more odious whose murder I would have viewed with equanimity. I liked the second victim a lot.
Crime fiction critic Mike Grost considered Clason one of the S. S. Van Dine school, citing the elaborate plots and literate writing styles typical of both. While I see the similarities between the cultured Van Dine and erudite Westborough, I consider Westborough preferable of the two. See Grost’s analysis here: http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7930217/Clason%2C%20Clyde%20B
For other commentaries, see the Mystery File blog post from 2009 here (https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1300) and a post on the Vintage Pop Fictions blog from 2016. (https://vintagepopfictions.wordpress.com/2016/02/26/clyde-b-clasons-murder-gone-minoan/)
While Doubleday first editions are available, Rue Morgue Press reprinted several of the Westborough books including this one and a digital copy is available on the Hathitrust website. Heinemann published the book in 1939 under the name Clue to the Labyrinth.