Customer Reviews

The Greene Murder Case

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Greene Murder Case is my favorite S.S. Van Dine book, and not just because it was the first of his series that I read.Reading this book is like viewing a fabulous black and white movie from the 1930's.It has everything--a dark,brooding mansion,a cast of dark,brooding suspects,mood-setting snowstorms, murder, many, many dark and stormy nights, a dark library filled with dusty tomes lit only by a guttering candle! What more could a mystery lover ask? Even though Vance's pretentious banter gets tiring, they just don't write 'em like this anymore. Sigh.

This book was supposed to be last the trilogy with the Benson Murder and Canary Murder being the first two. The first book was to be about a single man, the second book on a couple, and this book on a family.

The plot involves the murders of family members of the Greene family. It grows to be rather convoluted because at the end there are only two suspects left, and Philo Vance stays up an entire night figuring out which one of them actually was the murderer.

Still it was a fun read of the old school of detectives, and I recommend it highly.

There is a lot to dislike about S S Van Dine and Philo Vance, the main influence on the creation of many other Golden Age detectives, but in this book we see all the things to like. Fiendishly clever, good atmosphere, and Vance is not too far over the top. Also very good is the Bishop Murder Case.

Long, pompous, and boring. Pseudo-intellectual. The Philo Vance character is unappealing. He's given to long speeches, Regency English phrases like "'Pon my word," and classical allusions (btw, two of these partial quotes are attributed to the wrong classical authors). I've always enjoyed Lord Peter Wimsey when he plays the "silly ass" so that a witness or criminal may be deluded into thinking that Wimsey is harmless. But Vance doesn't turn the silly ass off and on. He's on all the time, forever dropping the Gs at the end of words ("distressin', y'know"). What is charming in the Lord Peter Wimsey character is tedious and annoying in the Philo Vance character. S. S. van Dine needed a strong-willed editor.

I don't want to give away too much of the plot and story, such as they are. However, if you have reason to think that a specific person will be murdered shortly and so you station a police nurse in close attendance on the person, don't you think it would be a good idea if that police nurse didn't leave at 11pm to go to bed? So murders never happen during the night?

I pinpointed the murderer two paragraphs after the character was introduced. Reading the rest of the book was a joyless event. I was embarrassed for these police professionals who have to stand around with their mouths hanging open in admiration while Philo Vance, rank amateur and terribly proud of it, airily and with many dropped Gs points out which of the suspects have eyes set too close together.

If you can manage through some truly loathesome characters in a really dysfunctional family (all grown up, no less), then you'll really enjoy this twisted murder story about various very spoiled family members in 1920's upper crust east side NYC. The hilites include some nice scenes in the big city, and witty and amusing dialogue, not to mention some estoric comments on art and criminalogy by the intrepid Vance, who is not as "obnoxious" as ofen made out,plus interesting medical treatments at the time. DA Markman and his underlings also provide some near comic relief to a really gruesome story. The culprit was not too hard to figure for an old mystery fan like me, but all in all a solid and thoughtful whodunnit from the old school! Van Dine is today a very underrated expert at the old classic mystery.

After reading The Bishop Murder Case a definite pattern is
detectable as to whom the killer (or killers) will be. Van Dine
likes to direct suspicion to the least savory (and most likely) of suspects and then surprise the reader when the suspect is eliminated from being the potential cuprit. This tactic is excusable because of the clever way Van Dine creates the seemingly perfect murders. He also jettisons character development by having the narrator (Vance's sidekick Van) give
his personal analysis of each of the stories protagonists and
seldom allows any other traits reveal themselves through action and dialogue. That is, all of the protagonists except Philo
Vance himself (the real reason to spend the time to read these whodunnits - many of which are hard to obtain) who in spite
of Van's attempts to reign him in and define him is in vain, because of Vance's lackadasical intensity in solving seemingly impossible crimes and his weird colloquialisms and abbreviated take on English.

Although "the bishop murder case" is said to be the best of the series by many critics, I prefer this one. Let me add the fact that this has been still in-print in Japanese translation for years and has been read by many Japanese people.