The setting for „The Garden Murder Case”, the ninth detective novel by S.S. Van Dine, featuring stylish intellectual detective Philo Vance, is a rooftop penthouse. Vance receives a not-so-anonymous phone message that piques his interest in a gathering of Floyd Garden socialites and friends to hear the results of the race in the comfort of his father’s luxurious penthouse.
Casper Kenting disappeared from the family home and a ransom note was found. Tips indicate Kenting’s involvement in his own abduction, but Vance sees this false trail. The abduction case is full of ordinary cliches: a ransom note consisting of words cut out from a newspaper and a demand to leave the ransom on an empty tree at midnight.
All the action takes place within 36 hours, and during this time, Van Dyne collected many action games, red herring, suspects, humor and lessons from Egyptian history. He is joined by his friend John F. Markham, the New York County District Attorney, and his able assistant Sergeant Ernest Heath. Kyle was found dead in the private museum of the Egyptologist Dr. Mindrum V.K. Bliss at the foot of a large statue of Anubis with a smaller statue of Sakhmet, which seemed to have f...
Vance, an independently wealthy college educator, amateur detective, uses his deductive skills and psychological knowledge to help his friend New York County Attorney solve the murder of Archer Coe. At first he thought of suicide when Coe’s body was found in a room locked from the inside with all the windows closed. As usual, the action takes place in New York. Vance’s methods are unconventional and run counter to the more stringent police investigation methods and legal re...
This is the seventh book about the detective Filo Vance, in which, as always, he skillfully investigates an unusual case. One of the guests gathered in a comfortable estate for the weekend dives into the pool and does not leave it in front of several people. Neither the search for divers or the descent of water yields results: a person disappears without a trace. And, although many are interested in the death of the unfortunate, the suspicion seriously falls on the dragon....
Gracie Allen in this case is not a famous artist, but a worker in a perfume factory. She involuntarily gives the enchanted Philo Vance all the important clues in this murder of a gangster, in those days when Riverdale in the Bronx was a rural paradise. Vance meets her when she interacts with nature, and then again in a trendy restaurant where her brother plays an important role. For a moment, her mother appears, a gentle, faded lady who turns out to be as sharp as Gracie....
One of the best novels by the little American detective writer Van Dyne, The Canary Killing Case, takes the reader to New York sixty years ago, where amateur detective Filo Vance, a literary relative of Sherlock Holmes, brilliantly uses the deductive method to find the killer of the „star” Broadway at night nicknamed Canary.
The Benson Case is the first case, the first detective from the Philo Vens series. Again, we are dealing with an amateur detective who has his own Watson and Lestrade, a first-person narrator who is present at all events and a good acquaintance of Vance, the New York City Police Attorney Markham. In this book, he still does not particularly believe in Vance’s ability to psychologically unwind potential victims of murder suspects.
Gracie Allen in this case is not a famous artist, but a worker in a perfume factory. She involuntarily gives the enchanted Philo Vance all the important clues in this murder of a gangster, in those days when Riverdale in the Bronx was a rural paradise. Vance meets her when she interacts with nature, and then again in a trendy restaurant where her brother plays an important role. For a moment, her mother appears, a gentle, faded lady who turns out to be as sharp as Gracie....
This is the last Filo Vance novel, and it is actually not finished. Vance possessed a surprisingly vast and accurate knowledge of thousands of Willard’s arts and objects, and was also skeptical of life and society. But in reality, only those who superficially know Willard Huntington Wright will have this similarity. Vance as much as he was Wright.
Independent, rich, educated, amateur detective, Vance uses his deductive skills and psychological knowledge to help his friend, New York County Attorney, solve the murder and attempt to poison others. The killer laid an intricate conspiracy that Vance cannot solve. As usual, the action takes place in New York. Vance’s methods are unconventional and run counter to the more stringent police investigation methods and legal requirements of a lawyer.
