S S van Dine

The sleuth we love to loathe is back! Philo Vance—the snootiest snob in Jazz Age NYC—investigates murders in the wealthy Greene family, who are dropping like flies! Members of the Greene family keep dying, while the pool of possible perpetrators keeps shrinking…although the servants, each one weirder than the next, remain in the pink of health). Vance—the independently wealthy, staggeringly brilliant, not remotely modest (and did we mention handsome?) amateur sleuth—uses his detective skills to unravel the murders, though sadly not before most of the Greene family has been bumped off.First published in 1928, Greene topped the year’s bestseller lists and was made into not one, not two, but an astonishing three films, the first starring William Powell, and the second somebody named Grant Richards. The third, a made-for-TV movie, came out just sixteen years ago…in the Czech Republic. That’s our Philo, the Sleuth the World Loves to Hate.

The sleuth we love to hate is back, as Philo Vance investigates the murder of a "fast and easy showgirl" known as the Canary. Let us begin by promising that no actual birds are harmed in this story. The Canary of the title is Margaret Odell, once a showgirl in the Ziegfeld Follies, more recently an occasional nightclub singer and professional good time. When she is murdered, there are any number of suspects, all of the male variety. The police, of course, are baffled—it was ever thus—but happily, Philo Vance is on the scene, ready to apply his brilliance, his erudition, his astonishingly nuanced grasp of human nature to the solving of the crime. British crime writer and critic Julian Symons once noted that “It is difficult to grasp the extent of Van Dine’s success,” but a success he surely was: Canary stayed on bestseller lists for months and was filmed with William Powell and Louise Brooks. Will you cozy up to Philo Vance? Unlikely. But you’ll have a dandy time.

'The perfect sleuth for the Jazz Age' Crimereads 'With his highbrow manner and his parade of encyclopaedic learning, Philo Vance is not only a detective; he is a god out of the machine' New York Times 'Probably the most asinine character in detective fiction' Raymond Chandler __________ In one of the most well-known classic American puzzle mysteries, amateur detective Philo Vance must solve a baffling series of murders based on nursery rhymes A series of gruesome murders has left the glittering world of Jazz Age Manhattan in shock. With every new victim, the perpetrator sends a taunting note to the press, simply signed 'The Bishop'. New York's District Attorney turns to the only man who can crack the case: the dapper and brilliant detective Philo Vance. With his razor-sharp intellect and impeccable style, Vance sets out to track down the killer before more lives are lost, and soon uncovers a dark pattern to the murders. As the investigation takes him from the mansions of the city's elite to the seedy underworld of speakeasies and jazz clubs, Vance must use all his wits to stay one step ahead of The Bishop. Will he be able to solve the case in time, or risk becoming the killer's next victim?