S.S. Van Dine Books In Order

The Benson Murder Case

This novel opens with the death of playboy stockbroker, Alvin Benson, who is found in his brownstone mansion with a bullet through his head. First on the scene is Philo Vance, amateur detective, who is at once intrigued by the absence of Alvin’s toupee and his false teeth. These odd clues set him in pursuit of an elusive murderer. He confronts a host of suspects and uncovers a number of family skeletons in his quest for the truth. S.S. van Dine is the pen name of Willard Huntington Wright 1888 1939 who wrote this novel in 1926. He wrote 13 best selling crime novels and his amateur detective, Philo Vance was later immortalized on screen by William Powell in ‘The Canary Murder Case’.

The Canary Murder Case

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 six 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.

The Greene Murder Case

CONTENTS:

• 1. A DOUBLE TRAGEDY
• 2. THE INVESTIGATION OPENS
• 3. AT THE GREENE MANSION
• 4. THE MISSING REVOLVER
• 5. HOMICIDAL POSSIBILITIES
• 6. AN ACCUSATION
• 7. VANCE ARGUES THE CASE
• 8. THE SECOND TRAGEDY
• 9. THE THREE BULLETS
• 10. THE CLOSING OF A DOOR
• 11. A PAINFUL INTERVIEW
• 12. A MOTOR RIDE
• 13. THE THIRD TRAGEDY
• 14. FOOTPRINTS ON THE CARPET
• 15. THE MURDERER IN THE HOUSE
• 16. THE LOST POISONS
• 17. THE TWO WILLS
• 18. IN THE LOCKED LIBRARY
• 19. SHERRY AND PARALYSIS
• 20. THE FOURTH TRAGEDY
• 21. A DEPLETED HOUSEHOLD
• 22. THE SHADOWY FIGURE
• 23. THE MISSING FACT
• 24. A MYSTERIOUS TRIP
• 25. THE CAPTURE
• 26. THE ASTOUNDING TRUTH

a selection from:

A DOUBLE TRAGEDY
Tuesday, November 9; 10 a.m.

IT has long been a source of wonder to me why the leading criminological writers men like Edmund Lester Pearson, H. B. Irving, Filson Young, Canon Brookes, William Bolitho, and Harold Eaton have not devoted more space to the Greene tragedy; for here, surely, is one of the outstanding murder mysteries of modern times a case practically unique in the annals of latter day crime. And yet I realize, as I read over my own voluminous notes on the case, and inspect the various documents relating to it, how little of its inner history ever came to light, and how impossible it would be for even the most imaginative chronicler to fill in the hiatuses.

The world, of course, knows the external facts. For over a month the Press of two continents was filled with accounts of this appalling tragedy; and even the bare outline was sufficient to gratify the public’s craving for the abnormal and the spectacular. But the inside story of the catastrophe surpassed even the wildest flights of public fancy; and, as I now sit down to divulge those facts for the first time, I am oppressed with a feeling akin to unreality, although I was a witness to most of them and hold in my possession the incontestable records of their actuality.

Of the fiendish ingenuity which lay behind this terrible crime, of the warped psychological motives that inspired it, and of the strange hidden sources of its technique, the world is completely ignorant. Moreover, no explanation has ever been given of the analytic steps that led to its solution. Nor have the events attending the mechanism of that solution events in themselves highly dramatic and unusual ever been recounted. The public believes that the termination of the case was a result of the usual police methods of investigation; but this is because the public is unaware of many of the vital factors of the crime itself, and because both the Police Department and the District Attorney’s office have, as if by tacit agreement, refused to make known the entire truth whether for fear of being disbelieved or merely because there are certain things so terrible that no man wishes to talk of them, I do not know.

The record, therefore, which I am about to set down is the first complete and unedited history of the Greene holocaust.¹ I feel that now the truth should be known, for it is history, and one should not shrink from historical facts. Also, I believe that the credit for the solution of this case should go where it belongs.

The man who elucidated the mystery and brought to a close that palimpsest of horror was, curiously enough, in no way officially connected with the police; and in all the published accounts of the murder his name was not once mentioned. And yet, had it not been for him and his novel methods of criminal deduction, the heinous plot against the Greene family would have been conclusively successful…
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The Bishop Murder Case

1929. 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 six Philo Vance novels. This Philo Vance story begins: Of all the criminal cases in which Philo Vance participated as an unofficial investigator, the most sinister, the most bizarre, the seemingly most incomprehensible, and certainly the most terrifying, was the one that followed the famous Greene murders. The orgy of horror at the old Green mansion had been brought to its astounding close in December; and after the Christmas holidays Vance had gone to Switzerland for the winter sports. Returning to New York at the end of February he had thrown himself into some literary work he had long had in mind the uniform translation of the principal fragments of Menander found in the Egyptian papyri during the early years of the present century; and for over a month he had devoted himself sedulously to this thankless task. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

The Kidnap Murder Case

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.