S. S. Van Dine (1888–1939)
Author of The Canary Murder Case
About the Author
Image credit: Library of Congress
Series
Works by S. S. Van Dine
Philo Vance : Four Complete Novels (Benson Murder Case / Canary Murder Case / Bishop Murder Case / Scarab Murder Case) (1984) 42 copies
Philo Vance 4 copies
The Philo Vance Murder Cases 6: The Gracie Allen Murder Case & The Winter Murder Case (2008) 3 copies
Philo Vance murder cases: The scarab murder case, The kennel murder case, The dragon murder case 2 copies
The Kennel Murder Case | The Dragon Murder Case | The Garden Murder Case | The Kidnap Murder Case 2 copies
Los crímenes del "Obispo" 1 copy
El caso de los asesinatos del Obispo: Una aventura de Philo Vance (Literatura Reino de Cordelia) (Spanish Edition) (2020) 1 copy
Il mistero di casa Giardino 1 copy
The Benson Murder Case | The Casino Murder Case | The Garden Murder Case | The Kidnap Murder Case | The Winter Murder… (1962) 1 copy
Philo Vance Omnibus Vol 2 1 copy
What Nietzsche Taught 1 copy
Associated Works
The Philosophy of Nietzsche: Thus Spake Zarathustra; Beyond Good and Evil; The Genealogy of Morals; Ecce Homo; The… (1927) — Introduction, some editions — 277 copies
Bodies from the Library 2: Forgotten Stories of Mystery and Suspense by the Queens of Crime and other Masters of Golden… (2019) — Contributor — 66 copies
Murder Plus: True Crime Stories from the Masters of Detective Fiction (1958) — Contributor — 44 copies
Bodies from the Library 5: Forgotten Stories of Mystery and Suspense from the Golden Age of Detection (2022) — Contributor — 28 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Wright, Willard Huntington
- Other names
- S. S. Van Dine
- Birthdate
- 1888-10-15
- Date of death
- 1939-04-11
- Burial location
- New York, New York, USA
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
- Place of death
- New York, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- Charlottesville, Virginia, USA (birth)
New York, New York, USA (death)
Los Angeles, California, USA - Education
- Pomona College
Harvard University
St. Vincent College - Occupations
- art critic
novelist
short story writer
journalist
literary editor
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 55
- Also by
- 10
- Members
- 2,341
- Popularity
- #10,957
- Rating
- 3.4
- Reviews
- 83
- ISBNs
- 265
- Languages
- 13
- Favorited
- 1
Review of the Felony & Mayhem Kindle eBook edition (March 7, 2020) of the Scribner’s hardcover original (1934).
It is unfortunate that the Philo Vance novels become increasingly self-parodies in the long run. I'm finishing out this binge read as they are still reasonably entertaining even though very predictable. It is also wild to read them with the knowledge of present day forensics and CSI style crime investigations. Philo Vance picks up objects at crime scenes, often even pocketing them, with hardly a care and with no objection by the criminal authorities. Everyone in the books smokes constantly, cigarettes for Vance and mostly cigars for District Attorney Markham and Sergeant Heath. This is even at the crime scenes.
Anyway, The Casino Murder Case is par for the course, with the usual misdirection from the obvious suspect. There is a subplot of the possible use of heavy water as a poison, which is also a distraction from the real method of poisoning. Vance pontificates about methods of betting along with the science of heavy water extraction. In the end we have the now standard Unsatisfactory Ending Alert™ where the criminal meets an end which doesn't satisfy standard criminal justice.
See the front cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/36/TheCasinoMurderCase.jpg
The front cover of the original Scribner’s first edition (1934). Image sourced from Wikipedia.
There is some confusion about the chronology of the Philo Vance books, with The Casino Murder Case assigned the No. 7 in the canon. Some editions say that is No. 8 though, as can be seen on the cover of this Felony & Mayhem edition from 2020.
Footnote
* This is the formula given in the book for heavy water. It is now commonly given as D2O. Heavy water was a recent discovery in the early 1930s and its possible toxic effects were unknown.
Trivia and Links
See film poster at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/51/The_Casino_Murder_Case_film.jpg
The Casino Murder Case was adapted as the same-titled film The Casino Murder Case (1935) directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring Paul Lukas as Philo Vance. You can see the original trailer for the film on YouTube here. Both the trailer and a clip from the film give the impression that it is played mostly as a comedy.
Willard Huntington Wright aka S.S. Van Dine is also the author of the Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories.… (more)