Customer Reviews

The Kidnap Murder Case: A Philo Vance Story (The Philo Vance)

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This is one of the last three mysteries of S.S. Van Dine. It is the mystery of the kidnaping of playboy Kaspar Kenting - who did it, and what are the family secrets involved in his kidnaping. It may be one of the last but it still shows the elaborate plotting of the earlier Philo Vance mysteries, though instead of endless deduction by Vance there are many more action scenes.

"The Kidnap Murder Case," published in 1936, was the tenth of the twelve Philo Vance mystery novels written by Willard Huntington Wright under the name "S. S. van Dine." Despite the fact that the first edition plainly stated the next book of the series would be "The Linden Murder Case," no book by that title was published. The eleventh book was called "The Gracie Allen Murder Case." The series began in 1926 with "The Benson Murder Case" and ended in 1939 with the posthumous publication of "The Winter Murder Case." As one might suppose, all the books dealt with murders committed under the most puzzling circumstances, only to be unraveled in the end by the ultra-rich, ultra-effete, ultra-snobbish and unquestionably ultra-clever Philo Vance.

The books appeared on almost an annual basis. All of them were financially successful, although some critics professed to detect a falling off of quality in the second half dozen. The books were spun off into successful movies and radio shows in which the producers, being no fools, took care to drop many of Vance's more obnoxious ticks, making him a more appealing character on screen and speaker. The book-buying public, though, took their annual dose of Vance unadulterated and liked him that way.

In the first books of the series, Wright/van Dine boxed himself in by stating plainly that all of Vance's cases had taken place during the four years in which his friend, John F.-X. Markham, had served his single term as District Attorney in New York. Elsewhere, in my review of "The Benson Murder Case," I gave my reasons for believing that the four years in question were 1920-1924. By the time that Wright/van Dine got around to the later cases, he had dropped that very narrow time-frame.

In this book, Wright/van Dine actually presents us with a kidnap note dated "today [Friday, July 22] in this year of our Lord 1936." Wright/van Dine, being the sort of fellow he was, however, immediately crushes this chronological certitude with a footnote which reads in part, "I have made one small and immaterial [!] change in transcribing this note. I am using the year in which I am actually writing ... instead of the year in which it occurred...." It should be noted that July 22 fell on a Wednesday in 1936, but in 1932 it fell on Friday. Within the book are two other clues about the date. There is a reference to the depression, which could only have been made some months after October 1929. There is also a passing reference to the blonde hair of movie star Jean Harlow. Harlow had become a star with "Hell's Angels" in 1930, but as a redhead. She did not bleach her hair to its more familiar color until she made "Platinum Blonde" in 1931. She died in 1937 at the age of twenty-six. These things tend to fix the date of "The Kidnap Murder Case" in July 1932.

Going back to the overall chronology of the series, we must now assume that D.A. Markham served one term in 1920-1924. He was then defeated for re-election. He must have run again in 1928 and won, remaining in office until the 1936 election, at which time, Thomas E. Dewey, who had run up an even more spectacular series of convictions than Markham, was elected District Attorney of New York.

Although it lacks the maps and diagrams which so memorably characterized the early Vance books, "The Kidnap Murder Case" is in some ways a throwback to the earlier and better Vance novels. It is a completely urban tale that deals with financially well-off, if not quite filthy rich New Yorkers and their homes.

As one might assume, "The Kidnap Murder Case" deals with a kidnaping. Such being the case, it was inevitable that this book (like Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express") would make some sort of reference to the most famous kidnap case of the age, the taking and subsequent murder of the infant son of Charles Lindbergh on March 1, 1932. In this case, the specific reference is the presence of a wholly unneeded ladder propped against the upper floor bedroom window of the victim.

The case starts out in a nice, straightforward manner. The ne'er-do-well, gambling-addicted, penniless, younger brother of a prosperous New Yorker has been snatched from his bedroom in the middle of the night. A ransom note demands $50,000 for his return. Then Vance arrives on the scene. In a very short time, after listening to a few acute questions from that effete and aggravating man, the reader is puzzling over whether there actually had been a kidnaping at all, why the kidnapers (if any) had bothered, and why anyone would pay a bent nickel to get the victim back.

So far, so good. All this is the stuff of a classic Philo Vance case. However, the world and literary tastes were changing. Hammett had written "The Thin Man," a book that takes place in the very heart of Vance's world and had demonstrated just how artificial a creature Vance was. Murders were slowly moving from remote country estates and elegant townhouses into darkened back allies. Clever epigrams were falling before brass-knuckled fists. Even Vance had at last to abandon his elegant drawing rooms and breakfast tables for less salubrious haunts. In this particular book, he finds himself spending considerable time up in the branches of a tree (just the sort of place where some of his more exasperated fans might often have wished him to occupy.) More than that, the usually effete Vance becomes unexpectedly hard-boiled when hitherto shunned physical violence enters the story.

With volume ten of the series, the end is approaching, but Vance is still mostly himself and, as he himself might say, deucedly as brilliant a chap as ever, don't y'know?

Five classic stars.

LEC/AM/8-08