La fine dei Greene

Philo Vance #3

by S.S. Van Dine

La fine dei Greene è considerato tra i delitti più ingegnosi che sia stato mai creato nella storia del giallo.
Il patriarca Tobias Green, nonostante sia morto da più di dieci anni, riesce ancora ad imporre le sue decisioni alla propria famiglia. Ha infatti lasciato un testamento in cui ha scritto che per non perdere la propria eredità i figli e la moglie dovranno rimanere nella stessa casa per venticinque anni.
Una notte, però, un fantomatico ladro entra nella dimora dei Greene e uccide una componente della famiglia. Sarà solo la prima vittima inspiegabile, a cui se ne affiancheranno delle altre, fino a quando il mistero non verrà risolto e il segreto svelato. Un libro ricco di pathos, un giallo pieno di orrore e colpi di scena che conducono inevitabilmente ad un finale inaspettato.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Detective, Mystery Thriller, New York, The United States Of America

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1928

About the author

Pseudonym of Willard Huntington Wright

Reviews

[Charles van Buren · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF

A silly way to conduct a criminal investigation. Van Dine and Philo Vance become tiresome very quickly. I can see why Van Dine quickly faded as an author. I can not see how his writing ever became best sellers. Fortunately for American mystery fans he was supplanted in popular appeal by the likes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.

I understand that the movies are much better than Van Dine's books. I will probably try one of those. I hope that in the movies Philo Vance is something more than an irritating imitation of Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey.

[Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fiendish and Baffling
Review of the Felony & Mayhem Press Kindle eBook edition (March 25, 2019) of the Charles Scribner’s hardcover original (March 24, 1928).

Vance held up his hand. "It’s all very simple, Sergeant—once you have the key. What misled us was the fiendish cleverness and audacity of the plot. But there’s no longer any need to speculate about it. I have a printed and bound explanation of everything that happened. And it’s not a fictional or speculative explanation."

I had a bad introduction to the Philo Vance series with The Benson Murder Case (Phil Vance #1 - 1926) when I bought, sight unseen, a supposed "Collectible Crime Classics" edition which I ended up reviewing as Microscopic Edition may require reading with a Magnifying Glass.

When this Felony & Mayhem Press eBook showed up as a Kindle Deal of the Day, I decided to take a chance and ended up being pleasantly surprised. This was terrific Golden Age of Crime type stuff with a set of rather unlikeable family characters being slowly picked off one by one, leaving the police completely baffled until unofficial detective Philo Vance explains it all in the end.


Front cover of the original Charles Scribner’s first edition (1928). Image sourced from Wikipedia.

The case is documented by Vance's regular Watson under the name of S.S. Van Dine which is the pseudonym used by Willard Huntington Wright when writing mysteries. This discovery was even more of a bonus after I had ended up being disappointed with some early Nero Wolfe mysteries recently. I think the Philo Vances will be a series worth pursuing, especially now that I see there are upcoming reissues under the American Mystery Classics imprint (see below).

On the Berengaria Ease of Solving Scale® I would rate this as a 9 out of 10, i.e. "a very difficult solve." Even though the list of suspects drops continuously through the murderer's efforts, Ebert's Law of the Economy of Characters doesn't help much towards the solution as there is also continual misdirection to muddy the waters.

Trivia and Links
This novel was adapted for film as The Greene Murder Case (1929) directed by Frank Tuttle and starring William Powell as Philo Vance in his second performance as the character. No trailer or full film seems to be available online. There was a 1937 remake retitled as Night of Mystery directed by Ewald Dupont and starring Grant Richards as Philo Vance, but no public copy of the latter film seems to exist (according to Wikipedia).

The Greene Murder Case will have a future release in the Otto Penzler American Mystery Classics series on June 4, 2024.

Front cover of the upcoming American Mystery Classics edition (2024). Image sourced from Penzler Publishers.

Willard Huntington Wright aka S.S. Van Dine is also the author of the Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was feeling a bit ambivalent about this book after I had struggled to finish The Benson Murder Case--it took me months of interrupted reading to finish it, but it was a book I kept thinking about long afterwards. But to my surprise and relief, the obnoxious affectations of our amateur sleuth Philo Vance, were mercifully mostly absent from this book. I don't might that the author, and by extension his protagonist, is an intellectual. In fact, it was the many historical and philological asides that led me down many a rabbit hole, that I found particularly enjoyable with this book. I love books that I can learn from, so while some might find the endless footnotes annoying, they were my favorite part of this journey. I had a few guesses throughout the course of the case that ultimately proved to be correct, although in all fairness there was not a surfeit of suspects by the end. One point that I find irritating in mystery stories is when there is a mask slippage of the killer once they are revealed. Beforehand they are picture of normality and sanity; once discovered they become mad animals foaming at the mouth. Not particularly believable, but a suspension of disbelief is allowed for the dramatic effect it elicits. All in all quite the delicious read; one can understand why these books were so popular in their day.

[Erika Bonaparte · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reminded me of the old 1930-1940's black & white detective films that have given me great pleasure over the years. I definitely plan to read the remaining books S.S. Van Dime wrote in this wonderful series Philo Vance ( think William Powell). Highly recommend!

[Tony P · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have now read the first three Philo Vance novels, and this is the best IMO so far. Van Dine was enormously influential on many Golden Age whodunnit writers, including Christie, Queen, Carr, Innes and even Sayers. Several times in these three novels I started to say to myself, Oh no, that's a hackneyed twist, only to catch myself up short: It's the 1920s, and van Dine may be the very first to use these particular tropes. Rather like the man who objected to Shakespeare because he was full of quotes and cliches.

Speaking of Sayers, Philo Vance is surely a competitor with Lord Peter in the most-irritating-mannerisms stake. Although a New Yorker, Vance was educated in England, and his diction seems to have congealed in the Edwardian era.

I guessed the murderer within the first few chapters. Only I was wrong; van Dine still had several plot twists in store. I'm happy to say my second-favourite won the whodunnit stakes, but no great kudos to me; I held grimly on to my first choice for two chapters, sure he was going to pull a double twist. The climax is a fast-paced, suspenseful chase, but the denouement is a little laboured, with extensive quotes from Gross's monumental criminology text, footnoted with the original German (!)

Four stars for complex, mostly fair-play plotting, and an extra star for the final twists.

[Martina Sartor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una sontuosa dimora di stampo antico in piena Manhattan; una delle famiglie più importanti della città, i Greene, pervasa da odi e antichi rancori; un omicidio… E poi un altro e un altro ancora. La serie sembra non finire mai. Gli ingredienti per costruire un ottimo giallo classico ci sono tutti. Non manca il più importante: un investigatore dilettante d'eccezione, Philo Vance. L'investigatore snob, coltissimo, amante del lusso e dell'arte creato da S.S. Van Dine nel 1926, torna in questo romanzo per risolvere un caso intricatissimo col suo tipico metodo: studio psicologico dei personaggi, dell'osservazione attenta e della rielaborazione di indizi apparentemente inspiegabili.
La famiglia Greene è caratterizzata da una insolita clausola legata al testamento del defunto capofamiglia Tobias Greene: la vedova e i 5 figli dovranno rimanere a vivere nella dimora di famiglia per 25 anni, per aver diritto all'eredità. Questa convivenza forzata crea col tempo malumori e rancori fra i figli e anche verso la madre, presentata come un'arpia dominatrice che approfitta della sua infermità per angariare i figli. In una fredda notte invernale, dopo un'abbondante nevicata, un misterioso assassino prende di mira la famiglia Greene: la figlia primogenita Julia viene uccisa, mentre la più giovane, Ada, riesce miracolosamente a salvarsi. Uno degli altri fratelli, Chester, non crede alla teoria del ladro e del tentato furto. Così chiede l'intervento del procuratore distrettuale di New York Markham che, aiutato dall'amico Philo Vance, inizia subito le indagini.
Questo è solo l'inizio della storia in cui l'indagine, man mano che passano i giorni, diventa sempre più serrata ed impellente per fermare la sanguinosa catena di delitti che sta praticamente sterminando i Greene.
Abilissimo, S.S. Van Dine, nel creare un'atmosfera sempre più cupa e tesa e nel coinvolgere attivamente il lettore nelle indagini: ad un certo punto ci ritroviamo anche noi a ragionare con Philo Vance, a sospettare questo o quello e poi ad eliminare i sospettati dalla nostra personale lista… per forza di cose. Arriviamo anche noi alla conclusione che, come diceva Sherlock Holmes, "eliminato l'impossibile, ciò che resta, per improbabile che sia, deve essere la verità".
Autore delle famose "20 regole per scrivere romanzi polizieschi" (riportate integralmente alla fine del libro), in realtà secondo me anche Van Dine non le rispetta proprio alla lettera. Faccio solo un esempio. La regola n. 1 recita così: "Il lettore deve avere le stesse opportunità dell'investigatore di risolvere il mistero. Tutti gli indizi devono essere presentati e descritti con chiarezza." Ecco, proprio in questo romanzo una prova chiarificatrice viene presentata al lettore solo un capitolo prima della cattura del colpevole, quando ormai Vance ha già in mente la soluzione! Non una trasgressione vera e propria della regola, dunque, ma quasi…

[Nina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Philo Vance is described as “volatile, debonair, and possessed of a perpetual Juvenalian cynicism, smiling ironically at the bitterest realities, and consistently fulfilling the role of a whimsically disinterested spectator of life.” He’s really just kind of irritating. (He constantly drops vowels; e.g., “’Pon my word” is how he often starts sentences.) He’s a wealthy, young social aristocrat in 1920’s NYC who meddles in police business, although it appears the police are equally inept. He and the police don’t follow-up on suspicious behaviors and make assumptions based on appearance or class. ““As to the cook,” Markham went on; “she, too, is wholly outside of any serious consideration. She’s temperamentally unfitted to be cast in the rôle of murderer.”

In this book, members of a wealthy family are being murdered one by one and it’s rather obviously an inside job, yet when they are looking for the murder weapon, they allow an old lady to refuse to give them the key to the locked library or permission to search her room. They drag out their poor investigating for so long that more family gets murdered. I won’t read any more in this series.

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great classic mystery by a master of the genre: S.S.Van Dine.
Philo Vance investigates on a murder case happened among the wealthy family Greene of New York. The local police deemed it committed by a thief, but Vance thinks otherwise.
Compelling and full of twists.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little longer than it probably needed to be, but it kept my interest piqued to the end. Lots of older books mentioned and used in the storyline. Good solid mystery. Not any really 'likable' characters for me.

[Antonio Fanelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Molto meglio dei precedenti romanzi, anche se, paradossalmente, si comprende la soluzione ben prima delle pagine finali.
Ritmo, situazione, personaggi e l'atteggiamento di Vance rendono piacevole la lattura e appassionano fino all'ultima riga.

[Kenchiin · Rating 5 out of 5]

There were enough clues, it was a fair game :)

[Rick Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Major characters:

Philo Vance, dilettante detective
John F. X. Markham, district attorney
Mrs. Tobias Greene, matriarch
Julia Greene, eldest daughter
Stella Greene, daughter
Ada Greene, youngest daughter
Chester Greene, eldest son
Rex Greene, younger son
Sproot, Greene family butler
Gertrude Mannheim, cook
Dr. Arthur Von Blon, family doctor

Locale: New York City

Synopsis: It seems an intruder to the Greene home has shot and killed Julia Greene, and wounded her sister Ada Greene. Their brother, Chester Greene, asks District Attorney John F. X. Markham to investigate personally, as he feels the routine police inquiry is inadequate. Markham invites Philo Vance to come along. The intruder entered and left the home without leaving a trace other than footprints in the snow outside. The question is why the intruder - if bent on burglary - even bothered to go upstairs where the family was sleeping, when the valuables were downstairs?

As soon as the investigation begins, two more murders follow .. Chester Greene and Rex Greene. Now it seems someone is trying to wipe out the Greene family, one by one.

Review: This is a good diminishing-pool-of-potential-victims novel as the Greenes are eliminated one by one, with no apparent motive. As Van Dine novels go, not overly complex and Philo Vance stays relatively focused without wandering off into abstract monologues on irrelevant matters too often.

Clues are provided throughout as to the murderer. Initially, they misdirect the reader into thinking a certain person must be it - a nice piece of red herring.

A numerical list of clues is provided (there are 98) which is a bit tedious for the summary-before-the-big-reveal.

It is a bit disappointing when things are revealed in the denouément which had not been revealed to the reader previously. It seems the house has a unique architectural feature which is kept a secret from the reader until the end. Also a complicated mechanical device - which I found hard to believe - is used to give the murderer an alibi.

Extensive footnotes (many in German, no less!) are provided. I had often wondered whether the names/events in the footnotes were real or just made up - and one caught my eye: a reference to the book Murder at Smutty Nose by Edmund Lester Pearson; since Smutty Nose Island and its famous murder are only about 10 miles away from me. A quick lookup found the book and author are, indeed, factual.

Notable quotes:

"This affair is too complicated to be untangled by the unravelling of details."

"The person who sat in that library night after night and read strange books by candlelight is the key to everything."

Philo Vance: "The intruder must have left the room."
Sibella Greene: "I suppose he must have, if he's not there now."

[Ана Хелс · Rating 5 out of 5]

Покрай наскоро излязлата нова репродукция – защото историите за Поаро са си планирани за чисти визуални вакханалии от типа картина на Леонардо с милиард скрити елементи зад сенките на нечия полу – ехидна усмивка или неособено бързо загасен пламък в очите; на онази така добре позната история за трупа в Ориент експрес, се замислих какво е удоволствието да се гледа или чете история, чийто край знаеш, независимо колко оригинална, красива или вълнуваща по спомен е била някога. Е, това няма да ви се случи с Аферата Грийн, за чийто автор е малко вероятно да сте чували. И ще сте пропуснали много.

Тази малка книжка съдържа в себе си вълнуваща криминална драма от типа не затворена стая, ами направо затворена къща, в която всеки е заподозрян, а труповете капят като зрели праскови току в ръцете на обърканите до невменяемост полицаи. На помощ се притичат отново любители и не съвсем любители детективи, които доказват за пореден път, че дяволът е в детайлите, и жертвите твърде често стават извършители на злини, но и обратното е също толкова вярно. Наследниците на огромно богатство са задължени да живеят в истински замък насред американската индустриална революция, и в това убежище на готиката си дават среща истински макабрените призраци на миналото, престъпленията с тон прах по тях и човешката злоба, непознаваща граници. Дали доброто побеждава? Е, невинаги най-симпатичните герои са последните оцелели, но щом се случва, какво пък, още един спасен живот.

Класическа Кристи с нотка Льоблан и полъх на Льору, истинско криминално изживяване за неуморните сиви клетчици, които виждат престъпника във всеки, но най-вече защото точно той е там, макар и за други престъпления от конкретно търсените. Богатство, кражби, тайни връзки, съкровища, нездрав интерес към смъртта, злокобни слуги и още по-зловещи господари – рецепта за добро преживяване в тъмната страна на човешките слабости. Един брилянтен ум, посветен на логиката се бори с един перфектно обучен и съвършен в социопатичната си омраза, и резултатът е наистина по класически британско Дойлски, ако и без лулата, цигулката и спринцовката морфин. Една от най-добрите, и което е по-важно – непознати, поне за мен, криминални истории за пореден път в една блестяща колекция.

[Margaret Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointing. Van Dine's Philo Vance books were financially successful and influenced a number of other mystery writers not least of whom was Ellery Queen. The first two books in the Vance series were rather stiff and self-aware but that is not surprising. This book, the third, lacks any good excuse for its shortcomings.

SPOILER WARNING:
The only reason the first murder was not committed within hours of its taking place was due to the fact the police did almost nothing. The simplest aspects of police routine were not carried out. It wasn't a difficult to solve crime it was a crime that should have been solved before the next dawn. Most of the book is smoke and magic to make us think that Vance is clever detective. Vance and the police basically do nothing until the viable suspects are down to 2 and then when they make a move of these two tries to kill the other. No deductions necessary at all.

The writer loses additional points for going out of his way in his attempts to demonstrate the Vance is extraordinarily well educated and then misuses words that should be part of any decently educated person's vocabulary.

The greatest mystery of this series, to me, is that it was successful and influential.

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are not overly imaginative detective thrillers. I enjoy them because Van Dine was evidently a very well-read and -traveled man. I learn plenty about art, literature, and foreign words and phrases, which makes the books enjoyable. The actual cases are okay. This one was a bit like Agatha Christie, in that people kept dying and the pool of possible perpetrators kept shrinking. What's interesting it's that these books are not detective stories, etc. Sure, there are plenty of clues (or "clews," as spelled at the time) and red herrings, but the murders are solved as Vance plumbs the "psychology" of the case. He sits around and thinks for a while and then announces that he's solved it. This novel had a grand action scene thrown in at the end to change things up a bit, but the basic formula was the same.

[L. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, I can understand when the first victim is killed yeah, it's a tragedy, but no reason to move out of the house. But when the second person is killed, that's when someone with just an ounce of common sense should have been saying "I need to get out of here!" But nooooooooo. These stupid people just stay and stay, therefore they just die and die. Therefore, the murderer was doing the world a favor by eliminating these useless people.

[Mehedi Sarwar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the 3 rd novel in the series and so far the best.. tragedy started at Greene mansion when two of the sisters were shot, one killed and one survived the shooting. Before anyone get a clue about the first murder , pretty soon more murders followed. I every time the murderer is be step ahead of police and Philo Vance . In this case, Vance needed all his wits to find out the pattern between the crimes and to identify the person behind the crimes. Brilliant all the way through.

[March · Rating 4 out of 5]

The hapless Greenes are not well served by Philo Vance, who fails to unlock the puzzle before nearly all of them are dead. But this is one of the most campily enjoyable of this campy series -- that is, up to the denouement, which is a footnoted slog. Hugely influential: see Queen's Tragedy of Y, Allingham's Police at the Funeral, Christie's Crooked House, etc.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very old school. Had to keep a dictionary handy -lots off words and phrases no longer in use. A fairly unpleasant set of characters and I found it hard to be charmed by Philo Vance or his shadow, the author. A period piece.

[Cindy B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Available for free in etext at Gutenberg.org
And audio at librivox.org.

[José GG · Rating 3 out of 5]

★★★⯪☆
(3,5)

A Série Sangrenta, de S. S. Van Dine, é um romance policial clássico, centrado mais na lógica e na dedução do que na acção.
A investigação conduzida por Philo Vance assume quase a forma de um exercício intelectual, onde cada detalhe conta e o leitor é convidado a acompanhar o raciocínio passo a passo.

O ritmo é calmo e a narrativa privilegia o enigma em detrimento da profundidade emocional das personagens e da acção. Não é um policial moderno, mas um exemplo da Idade de Ouro do género, ideal para quem aprecia mistérios bem construídos e resolvidos com rigor lógico.
Na minha opinião este livro não será um dos melhores deste tipo de policial clássico, mas cumpre perfeitamente o seu papel.

[Marta Livros Araújo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um velhinho! Uma colecção super clássica!
Gostei bastante. Mais uma estreia para mim com este autor.
A história é narrada pelo escritor que é uma personagem do livro como sendo amigo de Philo Vance.
Fala-nos sobre a família Greene, uma família cliché! Rica, importante na sociedade, disfuncional e com demasiados segredos, e são esses segredos que vão sendo revelados à medida que as mortes vão acontecendo.
Quatro mortes. Um envenenamento. É aqui que Vance entra! Um "pintas" mas com perguntas acertivas e que no fim resolve os misteriosos crimes.
O livro é pequeno (183 páginas), mas chegamos a meio e não sabemos quem é o ou a misterioso/a assassino/a!
Gostei imenso! Capítulos curtos e com aquela linguagem antiga que nos leva a uma onda de Hercule Poirot e Sherlock Holmes!
Aconselho! E se encontrarem livros desta colecção Vampiro, não hesitem em comprar! Têm imensos livros deste género, policial, thriller, mistério etc.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gift card | Labored and obvious, but reasonable for the early Golden Age | So much of Vance's ridiculous twaddle could have been edited out, he just goes on and on at unnecessary length, including multiple pages of a bulleted list of everything that has already been explained in the narrative. And the murderer is clear from the literal moment they're introduced, which makes the attempted red herrings and drawing of suspicion to others a bit tedious. However, it's a perfectly reasonable example of the New York 1920s cozy mystery period, right as the genre was moving away from Carolyn Wells-type mysteries and toward the real classics. I won't rush to read more Philo Vance, but I also won't entirely rule them out.

[Kenneth · Rating 5 out of 5]

The old Greene mansion, lived in by the late Tobias Greene's family, is a creepy old house, and Tobias' adult children start being murdered, one by one. Philo Vance and his best friend, the New York County District Attorney, John F.-X. Markham, take up the investigation, which leads them into a nasty family haunted by its past. Set in New York City in the early 1920's, they struggle to make sense out of all the contradictory events and clues that keep happening.

[Puzzle Doctor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good classic mystery. Full review at classicmystery.blog

[Iveta M. Stoyanova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! It’s a well constructed, intriguing and witty page-turner!

[Antonella Imperiali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Piacevole, dinamico, pura evasione.
Mi sembra regga bene il suo tempo, quasi alla maniera della zia Agatha.
Verrebbe da leggerne uno dietro l’altro...


🇺🇸 LdM: Virginia (autore)
✍️ S.S.VD

[Rob Rains · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the worst books I have read in ages. The author is terribly verbose. There is nothing to this story, just boring. It took me forever to finish because I could not engage.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Willard Huntington Wright, under the pseudonym S. S. Van Dine, wrote the Greene Murder Case in 1928. It's the third in a series of detective novels centered on Philo Vance. The protagonist of "Greene" is Philo Vance, a wealthy, thirty-something New York art lover and expert. Vance is a erudite who seems to know something about everything, and a lot about art, history, and classic literature in particular.

I'd seen several old Philo Vance movies in the past, several of which starred William Powell, one of my favorite actors, and I think he was perfect in the role. In truth, the Philo Vance character is more Willard Huntington Wright than anyone else.

Vance's personal attorney, assistant, general secretary, friend, and almost constant companion in the Philo Vance novels is . . . wait for it . . . S. S. Van Dine. That's right. It's Van Dine who is our chronicler/story-teller, much as Doctor Watson told the stories of his friend and sleuth, Sherlock Holmes. Unlike Watson, the Van Dine of these stories does not participate in the action. He's an observer to the investigations and solutions, who recounts them to us. It works.

In "Greene," as in all of the Philo Vance stories, our hero/protagonist is invited by the NY District Attorney to observe/participate/assist in an murder investigation. The NYDA is Vance's longtime, close friend who takes a far more active role in police investigations than any DA you've ever encountered, going to far as actual crime scene investigation and witness interrogations. Taking this process as logical and factual, and getting to the stories themselves, our cast of characters work well together.

"The Greene Murder Case" starts when two young-adult daughters of an extremely wealthy family are mysteriously shot in the families NY City Mansion late one night. One of the sisters, who has been shot point-blank in the chest, dies. The other, younger adopted sister, has been shot point-blank in the back, but she lives to recover relatively quickly. The NYPD, NYDA, and Philo Vance, accompanied by his ever-present sidekick, Van Dine, show up to unravel the mystery.

What follows is a classic Who-Done-It, with lots of characters, suspects, and clues. Some of those clues seem more obvious to us as readers than they appear to the authorities. We're never quite sure what Vance thinks, as he always keeps his cards close to his vest until the great unveiling near the end where he discloses all.

As the story starts, there is the aged, invalid mother and widow of the family's patriarch and source of vast wealth, two sons, and three daughters, one now dead. Before your read is finished there will be more violence, and more bodies drop.

Can Philo Vance stop the carnage before the family is obliterated? THAT is the story, but I'm not going to disclose any more of the plot, as that would destroy the fun of uncovering it for yourself.

Wright/Van Dine has created a great story that keeps the reader involved and anxious to see what happens next. He writes intelligently--at times almost too much so. There's a lot of references to The Classics, Latin, Shakespeare, and others, that certainly fit the Philo Vance character, but could be off-putting to some readers. I'm a pretty well-educated reader, but I had to stop a few times to check for the meanings of some words or references.

Do any of those style elements detract from the overall enjoyment of the story? Not for me, as I've already started reading the next story in the Philo Vance series. I loved "The Greene Murder Case," and think you will, too.

[Kelvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 1928 book by American art critic Willard Huntington Wright, writing using the pseudonym S.S. Van Dine. Under that name, he wrote a series of mystery novels featuring wealthy gentleman of leisure Philo Vance. Vance is the American version of the more famous Lord Peter Wimsey created by English crime writer Dorothy Sayers. Like Wimsey, Philo Vance came from a rich aristocratic family and enjoys attending auctions to buy for his collection (old books for Peter Wimsey, fine arts form Philo Vance). The two even look alike, being well dressed and each wearing a monocle. In addition, Philo Vance has Wimsey’s habit of ending a sentence by saying “what” at the very end. The book is narrated through the first-person voice of S.S. Van Dine (both the pen name of the author as well as a character in the book). In the book Van Dine is described as being Philo Vance’s old Harvard schoolmate, good friend and lawyer. He is like Dr. Watson in the Sherlock Holmes series except that while Watson plays a more active role in the Holmes stories, Van Dine appears in the book as a participant but never play any role or even say anything in the story. Unlike Holmes who focuses on observation of physical clues and analyzes them with his logical brain, Philo Vance claims to use psychological analysis. He solves his case not by following the evidence but instead perform a psychoanalysis on what kind of person will commit that crime. I have previously read Van Dine’s first book in the Philo Vance series (The Benson Murder Case), where I found Vance to be very annoying because he was arrogant and obnoxious and constantly put other people down to show how smart he is. In the Greene Murder case, however, those negative traits have all disappeared and Vance became a likeable and smart amateur detective. This is definitely a much more enjoyable book than The Benson Murder Case.

Spoiler Alert. Like all Philo Vance book, the story is told from the perspective of the narrator S.S. Van Dine, who is Philo Vance’s Watson. One thing I do like about Van Dine’s books are they all have very detailed diagrams and maps, which help the readers understand the layout of the crime scene. The setting of this story is in 1920s New York City and most of the story occurs in the Greene family mansion, where widowed family matriarch Mrs. Tobias Greene lives with her two sons (Chester and Rex), two daughters (Julia and Sibella), and an adopted daughter (Ada) together with the usual household staff. When Tobias Greene died his will contained a strange provision which requires all family members (except the adopted Ada) to continue to live in the Greene family mansion for the next 25 years (which ends in 1932) before they can inherit the family fortune. Any member who moved out of the mansion before the end of the period will be disinherited. What that festered was a very dysfunctional family where each family member hates each other and the family atmosphere was generally toxic and uncomfortable.

On one November evening when it was snowing outside, the eldest daughter Julia Greene was found shot to death in her room. The youngest daughter (the adopted Ada) was injured. A burglar was suspected. Days later, the eldest son Chester Green was also shot to death in his room on another snowy night just like Julia was. The District Attorney John F. X. Markham called in Philo Vance to help. As Vance was looking into the strange crime scene, which has clues that led people to believe it was an outside job because there were footprints outside on the snow, Vance suspected it was an inside job and the footprints were left as red herrings. As he was still investigating, the youngest son, Rex Greene, was also found shot dead in his room. Later, Ada Greene was found poisoned with morphine but she survived. Soon thereafter, Mrs. Tobias Greene died from strychnine poisoning. With almost all the Greene dead (Julia, Chester, Rex, Mrs. Greene), it means only Sibella and Ada were left to inherit the whole fortune. Vance finally decided to force his way into old Tobias Greene’s locked library, which has been locked up for years since the day Tobias died. Vance discovered Tobias has an extremely extensive criminology book collection, including all significant works on criminology and related areas in multiple languages. Vance also noticed that while most of the books are dusk coated, there are signs that a few of them have been read recently. He focused his attention on those, including an old book by Doctor Hans Gross of Vienna which covers many real cases in Europe. Through that, and other researches, Vance finally figured out it was the adopted child Ada Greene who was the mass murderer. She read up on the old cases and copied the methods, devices and techniques in the real cases for her own use. It turns out Ada resented and hated her adopted family who has always treated her like a servant and looked down on her. In addition, Ada has fallen in love with the family doctor, a Dr. Arthur Von Blon. When it became obvious to Ada that Von Blon loved Sibella rather than her, Ada decided she should kill the whole family so she could have revenge of her ill treatment, get the family fortune, and marry Von Blon. For her final act, Ada was going to take Sibella out for a drive up the mountain, to knock Sibella unconscious, than drive the car down a cliff and fake a car accident to kill Sibella. Vance arrived just in time when Ada was driving Sibella up the mountain. Ada then committed suicide by taking a hidden cyanide pill.

The plot of the book is quite interesting. Van Dine also introduced quite a few interesting twists and techniques into the story. For example, when Ada tried to play victim by shooting and injuring herself, she was able to remove the gun from her room by tying it to a rope that has a weight on the other side. By dangling the weight outside the window on a snowy night, she was able to shoot herself, then drop the gun into the snow and let it sink down. This is a copycat of the famous Sherlock Holmes’ 1922 short story The Problem of Thor Bridge written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Ada’s method of killing Rex is also quite clever. Since the two live in adjoining rooms, they apparently have a connecting communication cupboard between the rooms where they can move into each other’s rooms. Ada set up a booby trap inside the cupboard with a bootjack and a gun. She tied a rope from the trigger of the gun to the spring-loaded door of the cupboard. When Rex opened the cupboard, the gun fired and killed him. Immediately after the gun is fired, when Rex released the door handle on the cupboard, the door automatically closed itself because of the spring-loaded hinge. Since only Ada and Rex knew of the existence of the connecting cupboard, police did not initially discover how Rex was killed.