The Abominable Dr. Phibes

(The Abominable Dr. Phibes)

In England, in the 30', an awful series of crime is perpetrated against medecine men. Victims are submitted to frightful punishments : one dies under stings of a cloud of bees, another is slaughtered by bats, a third one is devoured by rats. Inspectors Trout and Crow of Scotland Yard lead the investigations. A strange medallion with a Hebrew symbol has been found beside a new victim, the Dr. Longstreet. This one has been entirely emptied from his blood. The abominable murderer seems to be inspired by the windys of Egypt, inflicted in the old testament to the people of the Pharaon, who was holding Hebrews in captivity.

Trout and Crow visit the Dr. Vesalius. Vesalius has the particularity to have worked with all victims in the past. He extracts from his old archives the only affair that unites the four assassinated doctors. A few years ago, Vesalius operated a woman but he could not save her. She was Victoria Phibes, Dr. Anton Phibes's wife, dead and burnt alive in a road accident while he was driving to reach his dead wife. Both are buried in a family vault in the suburbs of London. In order to be sure of that, the two inspectors verify the content of Phibes's coffins. These ones are empty. It is therefore now important and essential to insure the protections of the five other peoples, four doctors and one nurse who participated in the operation of Victoria Phibes before the avenger doctor accomplishes his destiny.

How will die the next victim ? by death of the new born ? grasshoppers ? hail ? One finds the Dr. Hedgepath deep-frozened in his car. An ingenious device having refrigerated him on place. Hedgepath was victim of the hail. In the meantime to discover the murderer, Trout no longer wants to take any more risk. He decides to send Dr. Whitcomb in a foreign country for some weeks. But Whitcomb is going to be pierced from part to part by a statue of a unicorn under the eyes of Trout and Crow who were escorting him.

While Phibes prepares meticulously the next lethal trap, the two inspectors are doing all they can to protect the last two next victims. Unfortunately, although she is under very high supervision, the poor nurse Allen will perish by grasshoppers. Vesalius is the last surviving doctor who operated Phibes's wife. He allthemore was the one who coordinated the operation. The last wound of Egypt still not played is the death of the new born…