Nursery Rhyme Crime Spree
Review of the Felony & Mayhem Press Kindle eBook edition (April 25, 2019) of the Scribners Press hardcover original (1929).

“We’re going to search the house, Pyne. You lead the way.”
Markham came forward. “But, Vance, we can’t do that!”
Vance wheeled round. “I’m not interested in what you can do or can’t do. I’m going to search this house… Sergeant, are you with me?” There was a strange look on his face.
“You bet your sweet life!” (I never liked Heath as much as at that moment.)

I might be reading too many of the Philo Vance novels. Initially it was a joy to discover these previously unknown gems from the Golden Age of Crime writing. The Bishop Murder Case however started to tip into unrealistic and unsatisfactory territory in various ways. Earlier books in the series had more believable scenarios even if they used the often unlikely 'locked room' trope. This case has the villain reenacting Mother Goose nursery rhymes in a series of murders. There is the further absurd enhancement of them sending taunting letters to the authorities and to the press. The ending even flirted with an Unsatisfactory Ending Alert™.

See front cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ad/BishopMurderCase.jpg
Front cover of the original Scribners Press first edition (1929). Image sourced from Wikipedia.

Vance is a delightful character though and his verbal jousting with District Attorney Markham and the often stolid Police Sergeant Heath as documented by his personal 'Watson', the fictional S.S. Van Dine is a pleasure to read.

Trivia and Links
See movie poster at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c6/The_Bishop_Murder_Case.jpeg
The Bishop Murder Case was adapted as the same-titled film The Bishop Murder Case (1930) directed by David Burton & Nick Grinde and starring Basil Rathbone as Philo Vance. You can see the opening credits and the conclusion of the film on YouTube here.

Willard Huntington Wright aka S.S. Van Dine is also the author of the Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories. ( )

A tale from the “Golden Age” of mystery writing. A case where the murderer uses nursery rhymes to tell his tale.

It’s the 1920s and Philo Vance has been called in ,as an un-official investigator, by New York D.A. Johb F. –X Markham. Vance is a well read, aristocratic man, who may appear to be disinterested or unconcerned, but in actuality is observing everything around him.

In this case the suspects are from the scientific world — astronomy, mathematics, physics and the game of chess — men of great intelligence and logic ability. The strange bit is the tie to Mother Goose. What do nursery rhymes have to do with the case?

J.C. Robin is the first victim found dead, on a private archery range, with an arrow through him. Robin is a well-liked man with no enemies. His middle name is Cochrane, which has led to his friend nicknaming him Cock Robin. The last person to have seen Robin alive was his friend, Raymond Sperling. Sperling is sparrow in German.

“Who killed Cock Robin”
I, said the sparrow,
With my little bow and arrow,
I killed Cock Robin.”

When a typewritten note appears a little while later, referring to the murdered man and the nursery rhyme and is signed THE BISHOP,it is apparent the death was intentional murder.

Then John E. Sprig is found dead from a bullet to his head. This time a note was sent to a local paper and it referred to another rhyme. This cinched it that the cases were related.

Vance questions every ne connected with the case and finds all are not forthcoming with information. It takes excessive analysis and poking into corner to find who and why. ( )

113. The Bishop Murder Case, by S. S. Van Dine (read 1942 or 1943) This is the first book I read by Van Dine. I read two more, so I must have felt he was worth reading. ( )

Definitely a puzzle mystery, and a rather gruesome one at that! ( )

This was made into a movie, which I saw before reading this. I was not happy with whodunit because it seemed to me that the author strongly suggested / said that it was not possible for this person to have dunit.

Philo Vance is very rich, smart and knowledgeable. In fact, the book has footnotes! It also has a list of characters and tracks the date and time of the events.

He has a very close friend who spends most of his time with Vance and is therefore able to record how the mystery is solved even though he rarely if ever speaks. What he does is tell the reader things like, "... and it marked the beginning of the last phase of our investigation---a phase fraught with such sinister, soul-stirring tragedy and unspeakable horror, with such wanton cruelty and monstrous humor, that even now, years later, as I set down this reportorial record of it, I find it difficult to believe that the events were not, after all, a mere grotesque dream of fabulous wickedness." ( )