The Benson Murder Case is the first novel in the Philo Vance series of mystery novels by S. S. Van Dine, which became a best-seller.

1927. Illustrated with scenes from the Paramount photoplay. Around 1925 Willard Huntington Wright, critic and writer, underwent a long illness. As part of his convalescence he wrote The Benson Murder Case, in which he created the character of Philo Vance, a master sleuth. So that the book would not be compared to his other works he adopted the pseudonym S.S. Van Dine. By the time The Canary Murder Case, the second in the series was published, Van Dine had become a best seller. He wrote a total of twelve Philo Vance novels. The book begins: In the offices of the Homicide Bureau of the Detective Division of the New York Police Department, on the third floor of the Police Headquarters building in Center Street, there is a large steel filing cabinet; and within it, among thousands of others of its kind, there reposes a small green index-card on which is typed: ODell, Margaret. 184 West 71st Street. Sept. 10. Murder: Strangled about 11 p.m. Apartment ransacked. Jewelry stolen. Body found by Amy Gibson, maid.

Book by S. S. Van Dine

Quando um homem conhecido como Cock Robin aparece assassinado com uma flecha cravada no peito, John Markham, procurador do distrito judicial de Nova Iorque, chama para a investigação Philo Vance. Detetive amador de olho apurado e fraca crença em coincidências, Vance logo assinala a referência a uma conhecida lengalenga infantil. E rapidamente se torna claro que este será o padrão numa série de crimes extraordinários, arquitetados por um assassino de mente perversa, que mantém uma provocação constante à polícia através de cartas enviadas aos jornais, todas elas com a assinatura «O Bispo». Num estilo simples e direto, construído pela mão hábil de S. S. Van Dine, esta é uma história recheada de mortes, suspeitos e detalhes surpreendentes - como as peças de xadrez ou as de teatro. Um policial brilhante, uma obra clássica da literatura de mistério.

Book by Van Dine, S. S

When the chief suspect in the murder of a wealthy, but unpopular dog breeder is also found dead, Philco Vance decides to solve the perplexing case

Philo Vance, gourmet and amateur detective in 1930s Manhattan, investigates three mysterious poisonings at a fashionable gambling club

When Sanford Montague is killed while swimming in the pool on the Stamm estate, Philo Vance investigates the murder

In the ninth novels in the series, "The Garden Murder Case," Philo Vance investigates a murder and other suspicious events connected with the rooftop garden of the Garden's New York penthouse, where a group friends gather to listen to the result of horse races.

A reemergence of a long out-of-print classic, first published in 1936, follows the disappearance of playboy Kaspar Kenting and the investigations of the detective who sorts through the clues of an apparent kidnapping, uncovering a family secret in the process. Reprint.

This early work by S. S. Van Dine was originally published in 1938 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introduction. 'The Gracie Allen Murder Case' is one of Van Dine's novels of crime and mystery. S. S. Van Dine was born Willard Huntington Wright in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1888. He attended St. Vincent College, Pomona College and Harvard University, but failed to graduate, leaving to cultivate contacts he had made in the literary world. At the age of twenty-one, Wright began his professional writing career as literary editor of the Los Angeles Times. In 1926, Wright published his first S. S. Van Dine novel, The Benson Murder Case. Wright went on to write eleven more mysteries. The first few books about his upper-class amateur sleuth, Philo Vance, were so popular that Wright became wealthy for the first time in his life. His later books declined in popularity as the reading public's tastes in mystery fiction changed, but during the late twenties and early thirties his work was very successful.

A murder in the mountains is the latest case for the Manhattan detective famed for his “highbrow manner and parade of encyclopedic learning” ( The New York Times ). Wealthy and worldly-wise detective Philo Vance has been asked to keep watch at a house party in the snowy Berkshires of western Massachusetts, where he encounters an assortment of guests ranging from a treasure hunter to a race car driver. The owner of the house doesn’t quite trust his son’s friends—and is worried about the security of his precious emeralds. Sure enough, a guard is soon killed, the jewels are stolen, and then another guest dies, leaving Vance to make some cold calculations about who turned this gathering from festive to fatal . . . “Mr. Van Dine’s amateur detective is the most gentlemanly, and probably the most scholarly snooper in literature.” — Chicago Daily Tribune “The best of the American mystery men.” — The Globe