WARNING: The review might contain certain spoilers. What a brilliant series! I am so glad I finally decided to pick the series up, it's been shelved for me for quite a while now!The story starts with the art Connoisseur Philo Vance sitting at breakfast with Van Dine, who run his own business, when they're called upon by the district attorney himself- Markham. He tells them about a favor a close friend asked of him and offers them to join him. The favor- a through investigation of his brother's murder. As they reach the crime scene, they're faced with a murdered Alvin Benson reclining in his chair in a position so natural you almost expect him to "to turn to us and ask why we were intruding upon his privacy". Alvin's brother, Major Anthony Benson, Markham's friend, like a good ol' big brother, offers every assistance he can and turns over a list of few names for them to start their investigation.What makes a crime mystery truly worth reading is it's unpredictability. any book that keeps us guessing is one well written. And in this book, when you look at it and finally understand it, it's not so extraordinary- the motive, the means, opportunity. But what baffles us is- we never suspected him- the murderer. Not even until the very end when Vance finally demonstrates his case against him. But what's extraordinary are his methods of deductions. It gets further exciting when he finally explains his methods in the last chapter. With all the art and literary euphemism and references you'd think he's a philosopher of life but as it turns out, his methods do have substantiality to them. PLOT What more about the story and makes it that much more interesting is the fact that this is a real life case. Philo Vance, obviously not his original name, does exist. The case was indeed confusing and required considerations from more than one angle and had Vance not provided us with his great insights, we must've gotten confused with the circumstantial evidence against those suspected too. Despite of there being a twist, it's not so much because obviously Vance has known it since "five minutes later (he) entered the Benson living room". CHARACTERS To be honest, there's only one character I really ever want to talk about- Philo Vance . He's ingenuous! And to think that he really exist! He's, and likes to think of himself, some sort of literary philanthropist. He's quite amusing but starts to get on your nerves at times. Amusing because he's fascinating to watch and I picture him as some sort of guff, dressed in silk (which he really doesn't!), smoking a pipe (when he really smokes Cigar), a man who takes pride in his literary intelligence, artistic possessions and philosophical knowledge. His "don't y'know"s are annoying at first but as the book moves on, it kinda grows on you and you find yourself reading those with an accent. It's quite funny, the voice you use! At the same time, that vanity is precisely why he starts getting on our nerves- he thinks everyone else naive for following protocol. Not that he talks down on them but it's almost as if he pities them. That's plain irritating! But then- we can't really blame him, seeing as all minds brilliant in that respect have been some kind of "high functioning sociopaths"! S.S. Van Dine is not just a writer, he's an attorney and has worked with Vance all through these series of cases. However, while sometimes it is refreshing to have someone who can make Vance sound less sarcastic and to level things up, we don't really see much of him. He's like a personal one-man entourage of Vance. I wish we'd seen more of him and, being as he's been following the entire case and everything, I wish he'd put some of his own remarks in it too. He plays the role of the narrator through the series and that's just that. I believe he could've come out stronger as an entity if only he'd played a little more part in it. One would think he'd understand Markham, being an attorney himself! And that scenario must've made these proceeding even more exciting- to watch him struggle as to understand what to believe- Both Vance and Markham are experts in what they do and he's very well acquainted with one while he can completely stand in the shoes of another! That unintelligent agony! Markham was a strong character. If anyone, he had the nerves to both stand and stand up against Vance with resolution. He's smart, in the conventional sense of the word, and is also a good officer. He's not intelligent the way Vance is but is clever all the same. Although, there've been times when I found myself pitying him. But then there've also been times when I've shared his feelings of exasperation with Vance because of his know-it-all, oversmart, I've-outsmarted-you-but-I-won't-reveal-it-yet or I've-known-it-for-ages-now-you-legal-psychologically-unintelligent-fool attitude. Urgh! *eye roll* (Yes okay, you're right! Now stop with that I-told-you! attitude.)The possibilities in this case were amazing. Everyone seemed like an obvious suspect while he wasn't so obvious at the same time. Vance demonstrates with brilliance his ways and his belief that anything and everything is possible when provided with sufficient circumstantial and material evidences accompanied by the willingness to believe in it. His methods of deductions are amazing and nothing but plain intelligent. And although brilliant, no one with a psychological knowledge would really be surprised with it. But that doesn't mean they won't be impressed!Not to mention the writing! This was one of those beautifully technical while lyrically written books that render a different charm to crime mystery books, altogether. In my opinion, this is what makes Classic Mysteries the best combination of two of my absolute favorite genres- Classics and Mysteries. While you can be assured of having a beautiful writing experience with a classic, a story that keeps you guessing is a treat when it comes to crime mysteries. For me, the book accomplished both with superb elegance.This is an amazing series, one of my favorites now, and I sure am gonna read it through to the end. Anyone who loves an intelligent mystery would love it.
Philo Vance is not a detective. He claims to have solved the murder at the beginning of the novel based on "psychology" and after viewing the murder scene for about 5 minutes. The rest of the book is his leading the D.A. to solve for himself the case Vance has already cracked. This is an interesting twist, but it doesn't really change the formula for your typical detective fiction. Van Dine is no Agatha Christie, but then again I'm not sure he was trying to be. There is nothing fancy about the plot. Just a lot of suspects and an at-first-surprising-but-then-not-really perpetrator. Will I read more in the series? Probably. Eventually. The joy for me is the 30s-era New York, and Van Dine's expansive vocabulary. You get obscure Latin phrases, French phrases, German phrases, and even English vocabulary that sent me to the dictionary too many times. Here's just a sampling:myrmidon—a person who executes without question or scruple a master's commandsoubliette—a secret dungeon with an opening only in the ceiling, as in certain old castlesmoue—a pouting grimacebezique—a game resembling pinochle, originally played with 64 cards and now more commonly with 128 cards and, sometimes, 192 or 256 cardssamovar—a metal urn, used especially by Russians for heating water for making teacamorra— any similar society or group to a secret society of Naples, Italy, first publicly known about 1820, that developed into a powerful political organization and was later associated with blackmail, robbery, etc.
Do You like book The Benson Murder Case (1988)?
Mr. Benson is shot to death and sadly the man is not well liked so it comes down to a who-wouldn't do it. However, on his very first case, Philo Vance figure out who would have most likely have done it right off the bat, using his quick observational skills.In this first story is friend, district attorney Markham, comes off as being a bit dimwitted..as does Sergeant Heath fill the bill as heavy handed. The later books give more depth to these two characters. Also, in this story I was able to figure out the who, well in advance of the end. The main draw to the book is that they are light-hearted, and have an element of fun reading to them. At times the erudite Vance can be a bit of a name-dropper (see how smart I am) this too is handled better in later books. Should you read this, yes if you're a fan... this is where it began.
—Lisa Kucharski
The problem with reading a 'noir' style novel from the thirties is that the culture can seem almost alien eighty years later. Vance (and his amanuensis van Dine) seems to someone from today's world as a snob, sycophant, intellectual bully, poser, etc. van Dine speaks of him as some one to be emulated but what can you say about two men who live together and never go out with woman? Vance's traces of an English accent are from a semester he spent in Oxford. I'm from New York and have lived around Boston for twenty-five years and still sound like I'm from New York.He treats the District Attorney Markham and his lead investigator Heath like trained monkeys. His constant use of Latin and French phrases are nothing but those of an intellectual snob. His constant demeaning of the work the DA and police do makes you hope that some one will shoot him and put us all out of our misery. The topper for me was when Vance took out a MONOCLE to better view things. It's bad enough that many of the 'higher class' characters in the book wear Pince-Nez glasses a la FDR, but a monocle. Vance comes off as a very poor copy of Lord Peter Wimsy, whose books are still eminently readable. Don't ya know.Zeb Kantrowitz
—Zeb Kantrowitz
Non c'è che dire: questo libro risente di tutti gli anni che sono trascorsi e del momento storico in cui fu scritto (anni '20). O meglio risente di tutte le influenze dei grandi investigatori che sul palcoscenico della letteratura si sono affacciati o si stanno affacciando.Van Dine o meglio Willard Huntington Wright (il vero nome dello scrittore) imposta il libro seguendo con attenzione le regole per scrivere un buon poliziesco (http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venti_re...), partendo da un classico per l'investigazione: l'omicidio in casa di un personaggio dalla dubbia morale.Scritto con troppa freddezza o calcolo, con un protagonista troppo snob, questo romanzo non mi ha coinvolta più di tanto, anche se l'investigazione è perfetta e porta il lettore alla convinzione delle proprie intuizioni con passo leggero e chiaro facendolo posizione dalla parte del dandy Vance e non da quella del procuratore Markham.La mia recensione completa: http://amacadieuterpe.wordpress.com/2...
—M.Eloisa
