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bubblescotch's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Philo Vance, you will NEVER be Peter Wimsey.
cool_trek1's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
A very intellectual mystery for people with an expert vocabulary or a dictionary outside of the one in this edition.
I rather enjoyed it and would read another if I could find one.
I rather enjoyed it and would read another if I could find one.
rodney1946's review
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
S. S. Van Dine. The Benson Murder Case. New York, Scribner’s, 1926.
“When an author has been so unfortunate as to write a popular novel, it is a difficult thing to live down the reputation. Personally I have no sympathy with such a person, for there are few punishments too severe for a popular novel writer.” Willard Huntington Wright, 1909.
Philo Vance/Needs a kick in the pants.
Ogden Nash
With sales of over one million volumes, S. S. Van Dine was one of the most popular detective novelists of the Twenties. His series of novels featuring the self-consciously aristocratic detective Philo Vance were published by the august firm of Charles Scribner, and edited by the indefatigable Maxwell Perkins, also shepherd to the talents of Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe. S. S. Van Dine was really Willard Huntington Wright , a former academic and aesthete, art critic and editor with H. L Mencken of The Smart Set. Under his own name he published a half dozen books on art, society and literature (including a well reasoned attack on the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica). As S. S. Van Dine, his first of twelve mystery novels was The Benson Murder Case, published in 1926. His cultured and erudite detective/hero/alter ego, clearly reflects the new privileged lifestyles of the Jazz Age. as well as any number of quintessentially twenties qualities such as nerve and excess. They were highly and dramatically publicized. Although now they are more likely to be judged preposterous and pompous, they were immensely popular in their time and forecast an American obsession with the rich and famous continuing into the 21st Century. The Canary Murder Case broke all records for detective fiction, selling 20,000 copies in the first week of publication. It was also the first detective fiction to run in the eminent literary magazine Scribner’s.
Van Dine’s stories were the anti-thesis of the hard-boiled school, taking place largely among the upper classes and in the realms of high society and high culture, featuring the people, events and institutions of New York, including Stieglitz and his gallery, the famous Halls-Mills Murder and other true crimes of the decade. Many of Van Dine’s six letter murder cases (Canary, Bishop, Kennel, etc) were made into movies starring William Powell or Basil Rathbone as Vance, and including among others the wildly popular Louise Brooks (who ends up a corpse in the Canary Murder Case). Ellery Queen and Rex Stout, were to follow more successfully in his footsteps as the fascination of the public with Van Dine and Vance waned in the thirties. He is largely forgotten today and when remembered, as a curiosity of the times.
“When an author has been so unfortunate as to write a popular novel, it is a difficult thing to live down the reputation. Personally I have no sympathy with such a person, for there are few punishments too severe for a popular novel writer.” Willard Huntington Wright, 1909.
Philo Vance/Needs a kick in the pants.
Ogden Nash
With sales of over one million volumes, S. S. Van Dine was one of the most popular detective novelists of the Twenties. His series of novels featuring the self-consciously aristocratic detective Philo Vance were published by the august firm of Charles Scribner, and edited by the indefatigable Maxwell Perkins, also shepherd to the talents of Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe. S. S. Van Dine was really Willard Huntington Wright , a former academic and aesthete, art critic and editor with H. L Mencken of The Smart Set. Under his own name he published a half dozen books on art, society and literature (including a well reasoned attack on the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica). As S. S. Van Dine, his first of twelve mystery novels was The Benson Murder Case, published in 1926. His cultured and erudite detective/hero/alter ego, clearly reflects the new privileged lifestyles of the Jazz Age. as well as any number of quintessentially twenties qualities such as nerve and excess. They were highly and dramatically publicized. Although now they are more likely to be judged preposterous and pompous, they were immensely popular in their time and forecast an American obsession with the rich and famous continuing into the 21st Century. The Canary Murder Case broke all records for detective fiction, selling 20,000 copies in the first week of publication. It was also the first detective fiction to run in the eminent literary magazine Scribner’s.
Van Dine’s stories were the anti-thesis of the hard-boiled school, taking place largely among the upper classes and in the realms of high society and high culture, featuring the people, events and institutions of New York, including Stieglitz and his gallery, the famous Halls-Mills Murder and other true crimes of the decade. Many of Van Dine’s six letter murder cases (Canary, Bishop, Kennel, etc) were made into movies starring William Powell or Basil Rathbone as Vance, and including among others the wildly popular Louise Brooks (who ends up a corpse in the Canary Murder Case). Ellery Queen and Rex Stout, were to follow more successfully in his footsteps as the fascination of the public with Van Dine and Vance waned in the thirties. He is largely forgotten today and when remembered, as a curiosity of the times.
vesper1931's review
mysterious
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Philo Vance, is invited by friend and District Attorney, John Markham, to a crime scene. That of the murder of Alvin Benson who has been shot while at home. His psychological investigation is at odds with the police one.
An interesting mystery
Originally published 1926
An interesting mystery
Originally published 1926
cardica's review against another edition
3.0
Is it a bad thing when a novel isn’t nearly as intriguing as its author? Coming in at 10th place for our 2019 rankings, [b:The Benson Murder Case|1094330|The Benson Murder Case (A Philo Vance Mystery #1)|S.S. Van Dine|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1267916172l/1094330._SY75_.jpg|1081147] was a contentious one, as [a:S.S. Van Dine|7172955|S.S. Van Dine|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1475139794p2/7172955.jpg] seemed to force us to answer that question.
Our victim is one Alvin H. Benson, found shot in the head in his New York apartment, and when we arrive at the scene there is already a police investigation ongoing. The novel deserves credit for presenting us with a swathe of physical clues so quickly and efficiently. Van Dine is very much focused on giving you the fair clues you need to solve the mystery. Our detective, the perfect-beyond-reason Philo Vance, who isn’t really a detective at all but a rich art collector with far too much time on his hands and a self-appointed certificate in human psychology who, on a whim from his own charitable and dreadfully bored soul is invited to join the police on a manhunt to solve an impossible murder, as a...tourist?
Vance almost immediately takes control of the investigation through his good frenemy and local district attorney Mr John Markham, It then falls to Vance, his Watsons, and a cast of vaguely suspicious rich folk to solve the whodunnit. As we drift from offices, to police stations, to clubs, this detective has the supreme luxury of having his witnesses summoned to wherever is convenient, like some kind of witness conga line.
I have never read a drier murder case and I honestly haven’t seen the Watsons of a murder story treated so poorly as in this one. I say Watsons, plural only because our perspective, Van Dine’s eponymous self-insert character, is so barely present that despite being present in every single scene, when we went to count his interactions with other persons in the story, we ended up with a blank page. In his stead, the actual role of sidekick falls to District Attorney Markham who receives the brunt of the abuse from the intellectually-superior Vance.
This sort of superior monologuing is typical of both Vance and Van Dine, and suffice to say that if you can’t bring yourself to find the same ruffled amusement in Vance that Markham does, you probably won’t find the rest of the novel to your liking.
After supposedly solving the case in the opening chapter of the story, Vance himself is the star of the show as he makes it is his job to lead the rest of us there, and he is nothing if not eloquent when doing so. He has a curiously strong disregard for most physical forms of evidence and rather focuses on the ‘psychology’ of the crime and in using that to define and explain the actions of the killer and the surrounding circumstance. To follow this propensity up he is equipped with quite the silver tongue, being able to put anyone around him in exactly the mood he needs for the investigation.
So to summarise we have a pretentious egotistical jerk of a detective who is both excellent at spotting minute detail and in reading people and chatting people up I mean really, is there anything he can’t do?
Van Dine, otherwise known as Willard Huntington Wright otherwise known as the single most pretentious murder mystery author of the… well ever, might be one of the most fascinating authors we’ve covered on the show, and the delightful Benson Murder Case is an even stronger novel for having learned about him. He is known to have both been an incredible critic and intense lover of murder mystery over the course of his life and the twenty rules of crime fiction he has written up (and that you can check out on the Death of the Reader podcast at 2ser.com) have defined murder mystery alongside Knox for decades.
The Benson Case is a solid story but frankly it’s difficult to recommend to all but the most hardened crime novelists. For a newcomer it’s just going to beat you down and the plot isn’t gripping enough to catapult it forward. The mystery itself is excellent but if you’re looking for that extra bit of heart you’ll find nothing but cold logic here.
For the Benson Murder Case I give it naught but the satisfaction of a job well done but I will commit a box of chocolates and a vacation for Markham, who deserves it after going through all that abuse at the hands of his co-host. The Benson Murder Case comes in at 10th for our 2019 rankings, you can hear our full thoughts on Death of the Reader!
Our victim is one Alvin H. Benson, found shot in the head in his New York apartment, and when we arrive at the scene there is already a police investigation ongoing. The novel deserves credit for presenting us with a swathe of physical clues so quickly and efficiently. Van Dine is very much focused on giving you the fair clues you need to solve the mystery. Our detective, the perfect-beyond-reason Philo Vance, who isn’t really a detective at all but a rich art collector with far too much time on his hands and a self-appointed certificate in human psychology who, on a whim from his own charitable and dreadfully bored soul is invited to join the police on a manhunt to solve an impossible murder, as a...tourist?
Vance almost immediately takes control of the investigation through his good frenemy and local district attorney Mr John Markham, It then falls to Vance, his Watsons, and a cast of vaguely suspicious rich folk to solve the whodunnit. As we drift from offices, to police stations, to clubs, this detective has the supreme luxury of having his witnesses summoned to wherever is convenient, like some kind of witness conga line.
I have never read a drier murder case and I honestly haven’t seen the Watsons of a murder story treated so poorly as in this one. I say Watsons, plural only because our perspective, Van Dine’s eponymous self-insert character, is so barely present that despite being present in every single scene, when we went to count his interactions with other persons in the story, we ended up with a blank page. In his stead, the actual role of sidekick falls to District Attorney Markham who receives the brunt of the abuse from the intellectually-superior Vance.
This sort of superior monologuing is typical of both Vance and Van Dine, and suffice to say that if you can’t bring yourself to find the same ruffled amusement in Vance that Markham does, you probably won’t find the rest of the novel to your liking.
After supposedly solving the case in the opening chapter of the story, Vance himself is the star of the show as he makes it is his job to lead the rest of us there, and he is nothing if not eloquent when doing so. He has a curiously strong disregard for most physical forms of evidence and rather focuses on the ‘psychology’ of the crime and in using that to define and explain the actions of the killer and the surrounding circumstance. To follow this propensity up he is equipped with quite the silver tongue, being able to put anyone around him in exactly the mood he needs for the investigation.
So to summarise we have a pretentious egotistical jerk of a detective who is both excellent at spotting minute detail and in reading people and chatting people up I mean really, is there anything he can’t do?
Van Dine, otherwise known as Willard Huntington Wright otherwise known as the single most pretentious murder mystery author of the… well ever, might be one of the most fascinating authors we’ve covered on the show, and the delightful Benson Murder Case is an even stronger novel for having learned about him. He is known to have both been an incredible critic and intense lover of murder mystery over the course of his life and the twenty rules of crime fiction he has written up (and that you can check out on the Death of the Reader podcast at 2ser.com) have defined murder mystery alongside Knox for decades.
The Benson Case is a solid story but frankly it’s difficult to recommend to all but the most hardened crime novelists. For a newcomer it’s just going to beat you down and the plot isn’t gripping enough to catapult it forward. The mystery itself is excellent but if you’re looking for that extra bit of heart you’ll find nothing but cold logic here.
For the Benson Murder Case I give it naught but the satisfaction of a job well done but I will commit a box of chocolates and a vacation for Markham, who deserves it after going through all that abuse at the hands of his co-host. The Benson Murder Case comes in at 10th for our 2019 rankings, you can hear our full thoughts on Death of the Reader!
skullsnbats's review against another edition
2.0
you might want to punch philo vance in the face. one case where the movie is an improvement over the books!
lgpiper's review against another edition
3.0
One of the classic detectives of all time is Philo Vance. I had problems finding free kindle versions of any of the S.S. VanDine books that feature this character, until I stumbled upon my friends at Gutenberg/Australia. The first few chapters are a tough slog. The author spends way too much time telling us about Philo Vance, as opposed to showing us what he's like (the latter always makes for more interesting writing). Through out the book, Vance comes across as a total effete jerk. He's one of those privileged, rich people who don't see anything wrong in being intentionally offensive, so long as the offensiveness is masked under the guise of humorous banter. I'm pretty sure that at some point he mentioned how important it was to be gentlemanly and polite. All the while, however, he thinks his exalted state of being makes it ok to trample all over peoples' senses of self worth. Or something. Suffice to say he's an asshole. The very good review by dfordoom indicates that people tend either to love Philo Vance or else hate him.
That being said, after I'd slogged through a third of the book, it got to be interesting, and kept my attention until the end. Perhaps I'd become used to Vance's jerkiness and could shrug it off.
One has to suspend reality when reading Philo Vance. He's convinced that everything can be explained if one only understands human psychology adequately. So, using his psychological methods, he fingers the murderer almost immediately, but then feels a need to slowly walk the law officers through the steps of arresting the correct person, because they lack the imagination and psychological insight to understand the issues on their own. Of course, almost a century later, we realize that psychology is not at all a science, but is pretty much a bull-shit field of endeavor, populated heavily by hacks and charlatans, much like the field of economics.
Another interesting thing is that the actual convicting evidence was mostly obtained by illegal means. The murderer would never have been convicted in a modern court of law. I didn't realize how little respect people had for the Fourth Amendment a century ago. I can't decide if I'll read any more Philo Vance or not. I don't have a high level of tolerance for intentional jerks, but on the other hand, the story was interesting in its own way. We'll see. First, however, I'll sample Charley Chan.
That being said, after I'd slogged through a third of the book, it got to be interesting, and kept my attention until the end. Perhaps I'd become used to Vance's jerkiness and could shrug it off.
One has to suspend reality when reading Philo Vance. He's convinced that everything can be explained if one only understands human psychology adequately. So, using his psychological methods, he fingers the murderer almost immediately, but then feels a need to slowly walk the law officers through the steps of arresting the correct person, because they lack the imagination and psychological insight to understand the issues on their own. Of course, almost a century later, we realize that psychology is not at all a science, but is pretty much a bull-shit field of endeavor, populated heavily by hacks and charlatans, much like the field of economics.
Another interesting thing is that the actual convicting evidence was mostly obtained by illegal means. The murderer would never have been convicted in a modern court of law. I didn't realize how little respect people had for the Fourth Amendment a century ago. I can't decide if I'll read any more Philo Vance or not. I don't have a high level of tolerance for intentional jerks, but on the other hand, the story was interesting in its own way. We'll see. First, however, I'll sample Charley Chan.
merrysociopath's review against another edition
2.0
Si vede che questo romanzo è stato scritto da un critico letterario, perché è infarcito della prosa più pretenziosa che abbia mai letto.
readermeginco's review against another edition
3.0
Such an interesting writing style. It would never work today, but it probably worked really well when it was first published. Great as a period piece.
thegothiclibrary's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot