Customer Reviews

Philo Vance : Four Complete Novels (The Benson Murder Case / The "Canary" Murder Case / The Bishop Murder Case / The Scarab Murder Case)

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If you want a good read on those long lonely rainy days, let me suggest that you aquaint yourself with some interesting if not trecherous people. S.S. van Dine, one of the great detective writers of the 1920's has a knack for making his characters jump out of the printed page and confronting the reader. Van Dine's prose is streaked with beauty and elegance, the narratives of a high eschalon, well educated drawing room dandy (Philo Vance) who just happens to dabble in the study of human behavior. My conclusion was that S.S. Van Dine was a British writer until I did further investigation. Van Dine hailed from Charlottesville, Virginia- an attorney by profession who was a art critic as well.The Benson Murder Case was the first that I read and I just could not put it down and then The Canary Murder Case. The plots are smoothe, slippery, tricky and dangerous and that includes the upper class murderous villians that he has to deal with. Love the stories-you will too.

This is a surprisingly nice omnibus edition from 1984 which contains 4 complete Philo Vance novels with a biographical note about the author.

Hardcover in dustjacket: black paper over hardback boards with a sewn binding; 678 pp. The quality of the paper here is decent and a little better than one would expect from a mid-1980's reprint.