The Benson Murder Case

New York in the 1920s is the world’s most glamorous city, and drinking it in like the finest champagne is Philo Vance, an expert in art with the deepest pockets, the brainiest brains, and the most gloriously ludicrous pretensions in the history of crime fiction. When a scheming young stockbroker is murdered—in a delicious locked-room scenario based on a real case of the day—Vance steps in to solve the puzzle not merely because he is bored and seeking new entertainment, but also because honor compels him to point out all the ways in which the police are getting it wrong. The cops of course are profoundly grateful, like all members of the lower orders when their mistakes are pointed out. Peter Wimsey would be appalled, but the reader will be delighted. Philo Vance (here in his first outing) is the sleuth you love to hate.

“The perfect sleuth for the Jazz Age!” —CrimeReads
“Philo Vance is superb. He is destined for a place in the hall of fame reserved for the immortal sleuths of fiction” —Macon Chronicle-Herald
“A thriller the like of which has never been seen before” —Edmonton Journal
“A really entertaining baffler, which will test the detective powers of the best sleuths in the audience” —Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer
“Philo Vance is one of the most remarkable characters in the history of the detective novel” —Honolulu Star-Bulletin
“Has all the hallmarks of a ripping, puzzle-solving crime!” —Bloomsbury Reader

S.S. Van Dine, pseudonym of Willard Huntington Wright (1888–1939), was an American critic, editor, and the author of a series of best-selling detective novels featuring the brilliant but arrogant upper-class sleuth Philo Vance. All but two of the twelve Philo Vance mysteries were adapted as feature films, and his writings on the craft of detective fiction were also immensely popular.

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