Murder Books

The line of epic poesy quoted above comes from Ogden Nash and elegantly encapsulates the reactions of many readers to the hero--or at least the chief protagonist of twelve books written by Willard Huntington Wright, who hid for half a decade behind the name "S. S. van Dine." Other contemporaries tended to write with rather less elegance than Nash. Raymond Chandler, for instance, called Vance "the most asinine character in detective fiction."

Well, yes, but....

For all his faults--and Lord knows, Vance had his faults!--there is an undeniable fascination about him and the books in which he appears. They are classic mysteries in the purest sense of the term. If a reader can make it past the preciousness of the first ten pages or so, then that reader is likely to be well and truly hooked for the next three hundred. These are tales concerned not only with whodunit and also with howdunit, puzzles as enthralling and addictive in their own way as the crosswords and sudokus of our daily newspapers.

In keeping with the rules of the game as played during the classic mystery period, they are scrupulously fair: the reader is given all the facts of the case at the same time as Vance. All the reader then has to do is beat Vance to the final solution. (Lotsa luck on that...!)

Willard Huntington Wright was a New Yorker of literary pretensions who had hobnobbed with the major names in book and magazine publishing in his day, including even cantankerous H. L. Mencken. In 1925, while recuperating from an illness (some say from excessive use of alcohol and drugs), he hit on the notion that mysteries weren't selling very well at the time in America because American mystery writers weren't very good. He set out immediately to rectify that fault. He wrote three novelettes, essentially long outlines of the novels to come. He took them to his friend Maxwell Perkins, chief editor at Charles Scribner's Sons. Perkins was the greatest of American editors. It was he who fashioned literary landmarks out of the thousands of almost random pages submitted by Thomas Wolfe. He was the one who soothed the fevered brows and tortured egos of Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Perkins, in short, knew a good thing when he saw it. He saw it in those three novelettes and he laid down his company's money to have them expanded into books.

The first book of the series was "The Benson Murder Case," published in 1926. The second was "The 'Canary' Murder Case," published a year later and the third was "The Greene Murder Case," a year after that, but all three were effectively written together. Eventually, there were twelve books, the last published after the author's death in April 1939.

They were enormous popular hits (for Nash and Chandler would not have bothered to take notice of them otherwise.) The critics of the time pronounced the first six to be good but professed to detect a serious falling off of quality in the final six. I can't see it. With the passage of the larger part of a century, all twelve seem very much cut out of the same cloth to me. Critics notwithstanding, the books generated profitable spin-offs in the form of successful movies and radio shows.

They also served as a pattern for two great detective series that followed: Ellery Queen and Nero Wolfe. To those familiar with the earlier Queen novels, a series initially put in print during 1929, the young, Harvard-educated, ultra-rich, effete, pince-nez-wearing Ellery is an out-and-out ripoff of Vance. (After 1940, Queen changed substantially, but still...) Wolfe was not so much a copy as a sort of funhouse-mirror distortion of Vance. Not an aristocrat or born to wealth, Wolfe was a poor immigrant from Montenegro who came to America after the Great War. Nevertheless, by the time we first meet him in 1933, swilling down the newly legal bottled beer and, rather to his surprise, liking it, Wolfe is every bit as grand, aristocratic and eccentric as his predecessor (who lived only a few blocks away from Wolfe's famous house on West 35th.)

Fashions change. Before long, Dashiell Hammett was rejecting Van Dine and all his works as vigorously as he had rejected Agatha Christie and hers. In "The Thin Man," Nick and Nora Charles inhabit exactly the same New York setting as Vance but, oh, how differently. Sam Spade goes to the D.A. to crack wise, not to help him solve cases. Raymond Chandler's Marlowe walks down mean streets that are continents--worlds!--away from Vance's gilded apartments.

"The Benson Murder Case" offers a brilliant puzzle involving how and who (with diagrams and floor plans included.) A man is found sitting in his chair in the middle of his living room in a fancy New York apartment, dressed in a housecoat with a book in his hands, sans his usual hairpiece and dental plate. He has been shot in the head. In an absolute tour de force of misdirection and red herrings, Wright-van Dine sets up no less than six apparently airtight cases against his suspects and then casually demolishes five of them.

Five very clever stars for the mystery reader who wants something above and beyond the stereotyped, "easy reading" cozy mysteries that are so common today.

S. S. Van Dine is the pseudonym of Willard Huntington Wright, the author of the Philo Vance detective novels. This book is the first in the series and was published in 1926.

S. S. Van Dine is the name of the friend and lawyer for Vance and he supposedly wrote the books as first hand accounts of how Vance was able to solve murder mysteries which had stumped the New York police force and the District Attorney's office. Vance is a fascinating character in that he is very rich and very intelligent. Even though he does not work he seems to always be busy adding to his art collection, attending classical music performances and studying phylosophy. He spent five years in England, during which time he attended Oxford University (after having attended Harvard) and returned home with many of the mannerisms and speech affectations of upper crust Englishmen. Thus, the author has set the stage for a book which makes the reader stretch their own thoughts and ideas in order to keep up with the intellectual processes shown by Vance.

As luck would have it, Vance is friends with John F.-X. Markham who is the elected District Attorney for New York City. A chance request by Vance to be allowed to follow along on Markham's next case is the catalyst for involving Vance and Van Dine in the murder of Alvin Benson, a man-about-town and stockbroker who leans oftentimes too close to the edges of legality for others on Wall Street.

This is not really an 'examine every clue for hair or fibers' type story. It is told very much from the intellectual standpoint. Vance knows immediately who the murderer is (even though the reader is not given the culprits name), but must use intellect in order to gather information to convince Markham since there is, essentially, no evidence. This author assumes that the reader will be able to follow all the very highbrow art, music, foreign language and phylosophy discussions. No quarter is given. Foreign language sentences are not translated for the convenience of those who do not speak that language. Even the chapter numbers are given in Roman Numerals because at this time people would have known exactly what XIV or XIX meant.

I am a huge fan of mysteries and the older mysteries are just far and away the best for me. I enjoyed this book thoroughly. If you decide to read any of the Philo Vance stories, this is the best one to start with. It is the first one written by Wright and it lays the groundwork for who Vance is and how he operates in solving the crimes. A thinking person's book. But it is, first and foremost, a mystery. I have never seen these books in paperback. That doesn't mean they don't exist, just that I've never found one. My copy is a hardcover printed in 1926 which is beginning to show considerable signs of wear. Luckily, they seem to be available from resale dealers at quite reasonable prices.

*****Added 5/16/2008*****Since I wrote this review, I have gone back onto Amazon to look for the Philo Vance story I was missing and these books are all over Amazon in paperback. Don't worry about having to buy an old or used edition if you don't want to. Wonder where they were when I was looking before? jel

Physicist Gloria Lamerino retired from the BUL lab of California's Berkley University and moved to Revere, Massachusetts. Since living in New England, the fifty-six year old retiree has embarked on a second career as an amateur sleuth. When she learns that a former BUL associate, the ultra cautious Gary Larkin died from an overdose of the toxic beryllium, Gloria wonders what really happened.

While pondering the Larkin case, Gloria becomes involved with the disappearance of Manuel Martinez, a teenager who wrote a research paper on beryllium. Gloria begins to make inquires and quickly learns that the father of Manuel's girlfriend worked in the same lab as Gary. When Manuel is found as an obvious homicide victim, Gloria realizes that a link exists between the two investigations, but remains unknown. Knowing the cost could be her life, the fearless physicist continues to search for the truth.

THE BERYLLIUM MURDER is an electrifying tale that combines elements from a police procedural and an amateur sleuth into a stimulating academic mystery. The maturity of the physicist adds to her overall credibility. Her use of her scientific knowledge to augment the official investigation makes Gloria seem like a paid member of the police force. The myriad of viable suspects enhances the story line so elemental, my dear Watson that readers will demand more academic mysteries from Camille Minichino.

Harriet Klausner

There's good news and bad news in Camiile Minichino's latest installment in the burgeoning mystery solving career of Gloria Lamarino. The bad news is that Gloria is returning to California for her latest murder, a setting covered by author after author, rather than once again revisiting her "home town" of Revere, Massachusetts. (How many authors have made that a setting?) The good news is that in this novel, she displays a new skill for creating "red herrings" and an ability to keep the reader guessing "whodunnit" until the very end. The plot is her most convoluted yet -- and the resoluion very satisfying. Especially with the final "broad hints" that Minichino will again return to Revere for her next -- Boron -- murder. A good read, and I recommend it.

Excellent story that hits home for anyone whose experienced a weekend campout. A great introspect into the life of a tough cop...Mac Taylor is the modern, more rugged Sam Spade.

This novel transcends the typical mystery. It informs and entertains. The author's many years of diverse law enforcement experience is evident. As you read the book you learn many fundamental investigative techniques at the same time as being absorbed in the action. The teaching and entertaining is woven together in a subtle way. You never feel like you are being taught directly, however you walk away with an understanding of the psychological and practical aspects of detective work.

The author's love of nature is also evident. It is apparent Mr. D'Augustine has a love for the outdoors and he is able to convey this through his description of the natural setting and its inhabitants.

The pace of the book moves quickly. The intensity never wanes and your curiosity and interest spurs you to keep reading. An excellent read!

This book is extremely well written. It tackles a difficult subject tastefully and factually. The level of detail is impressive - the author was obviously very close to the whole sequence of events, as well as carrying out in-depth research.

Particularly compelling is the account of the interview Yates conducted with Maxine Carr in the very house in which the girls were murdered. Only days after the interview the truth came out; it is easy to sense Yates's shock at seeing the story unfold right in front of him, as one of the main reporters on the scene.

Yates delves into Huntley's past, trying to discover how someone could grow from being a child himself to becoming a child-killer. We are left with the sense that there is no easy answer, that his life story doesn't really explain it all, that maybe some people are just born that way. A chilling thought.

This book is extremely well written. It tackles a difficult subject tastefully and factually. The level of detail is impressive - the author was obviously very close to the whole sequence of events, as well as carrying out in-depth research.

Particularly compelling is the account of the interview Yates conducted with Maxine Carr in the very house in which the girls were murdered. Only days after the interview the truth came out; it is easy to sense Yates's shock at seeing the story unfold right in front of him, as one of the main reporters on the scene.

Yates delves into Huntley's past, trying to discover how someone could grow from being a child himself to becoming a child-killer. We are left with the sense that there is no easy answer, that his life story doesn't really explain it all, that maybe some people are just born that way. A chilling thought.

Not since TO A KILL A MOCKINGBIRD have I read a better novel that truly catches the flavor of the "old" South.

Schunk captures the stupidity and cruelty of racism through the eyes of a child. Her writing is excellent and the characters come alive on her pages.

I recommend this book highly to anyone who is interested in reading a captivating and yet horrifying mystery with a heart.

This one will stay with me a long time.

~In the summer of '51, twelve-year old Beth Ann Crane and her family visits the young girl's grandmother in Columbus, Georgia. Beth Anne loves her family and enjoys visiting her grandmother. However, this time things seem different to the young girl. She is aware of the swirling horrors of racism that seems to permeate everyone and everything. Being curious, Beth Anne begins to ask questions in a futile effort to understand the relationships that surround her.