Apparently, you either love Philo Vance — dilettante, bon vivant, sleuth — or you wish to give him the much-vaunted “kick in the pance”. I, having read his sixth investigation The Kennel Murder Case (1933) some ten-plus years ago, don’t remember having any opinion on the man at all, so when the American Mystery Classics range put out its usual high-quality version of The Benson Murder Case (1926), debut of Vance and author S.S. van Dine alike, an opportunity was to be seized. And so, encouraged by some comments made to me at the recent Bodies from the Library conference, here we are. And it all went rather well, don’t’cha’know.
When broker Alvin H. Benson is found shot in his home, and when D.A. John F.-X. Markham takes along his art-loving friend Philo Vance to the scene of the crime, little do both men know that they’re about “to alter the entire criminal history of New York”. Vance, appalled at the lazy reasoning the police apply — “The whole proceedings constituted a masterpiece of absurdity. Everything relevant was sublimely ignored.” — accepts Markham’s challenge to find the killer and, after digging through a few likely suspects, brings the truth to light, beginning what our narrator S.S. van Dine tells us is a four-year stretch of Vance being consulted on a raft of obscure and baffling crimes.
Given the enduring popularity of Van Dine’s creation and the impact he would have on later writers like Ellery Queen, it’s interesting to note that The Benson Murder Case is absolutely in no way a fair play novel of detection. The overwhelming majority of Vance’s telling deductions either rely on information that the reader simply does not have — the shape of someone’s ear, say — or are, at best, rather spurious. His insistence that “[t]he truth can be learned only by analysis of the psychological factors of a crime” conveniently allows him to dismiss some rather likely suspects, too, and I feared we might be on for another Cards on the Table (1936) where the psychology gets conveniently tossed aside in favour of some last minute action to actually assign guilt.
And so imagine my delight when the clarity with which Vance’s methods point to the murder are surprisingly good as psychological detection. I mean, there’s no mystery behind it — Vance tells us early on that he knows who the killer is, and since he starts (rot13 for spoilers) pnyyvat gur zheqrere “ur” jura njner bs bayl bar zna va gur pnfr…well, the reader is forewarned — but it’s light and fun and passes at a good lick. I enjoyed Vance’s method of mocking the shockingly lazy reasoning of Markham through almost Father Brownian aphorisms (“Suspecting a man of murder because he has a motive is like suspecting a man of running away with another man’s wife because he has two legs.”), and some of his put-downs are so withering (“Has he a history, or is his presence his life’s document?”) that you can be assured the subjects are still applying aftersun a century later.
It’s a shame that Markham isn’t given a little more intelligence — and, yes, I understand that the intention is for Vance to shine brightly among the dim bulbs of the NYPD — because the times Vance errs in his reasoning stand out more starkly, and cast the book in a less favourable light. Our genius amateur seems to dismiss out of hand, for instance, that more than one person could be involved in the commission of the crime — his telling conclusions about the cigarettes found at the scene lead him to reason that the smoker was there earlier in the day…which is correct, but doesn’t follow as rigorously as Van Dine would want you to believe. For all Queen’s density, they at least followed up their stronger reasoning well, whereas here, clearly an ingénue in the emerging field of detective fiction, there’s less of the solid reasoning the genre would be built on.
There’s much else to enjoy, however. The cloud of police officers drifting in and out of scenes, with Markham always able to call up more and assign to them ever-more unlikely tasks, leans into the sort of Humdrum police procedural that is very dear to my heart, and little historical notes — that it’s becoming increasingly common for women to smoke cigarettes, or that the First World War has made murder more likely because military men “got used to blood on the other side” — always go down well in my house. Equally, the friendship behind the raillery that Vance and Markham heap upon each other is keenly felt, despite what could have easily spiralled into a sort of ‘I disagree with you and now we’re at loggerheads’ situation. Plus, there are four lovely diagrams to elucidate certain settings. Four!
And Vance himself? I dunno what to tell you — his affected speech (“I thought it extr’ordin’rily simple.”) didn’t bother me, not least because of the scene in which all affectation drops from him as he earnestly urges his friend not to pursue a certain line at the risk of the D.A.’s reputation. Sure, I skipped a couple of paragraphs where Vance veered into garrulous side streets, but only a couple, and only because I was interested in following the speedy development of the core plot. His intellectual rigour is hardly anything new — Dr. John Thordnyke had already been doing it with more scrupulousness for two decades when this came out — but the breadth of his experience is rather interesting when applied to detection. So I’m more of the “Philo Vance/Should be given a chance” school of thinking on this experience.
It’s to be hoped that the AMC republish more of these, because I’d like to read further and, as far as I can tell, only cheaply-produced copyright-baiting editions of the Vance novels are readily available. The circumlocutory writing stands in stark contrast to the efficient, focussed prose that Agatha Christie was producing on the other side of the Atlantic, but as a fixed point in the history of the classic mystery I can well believe that there’s more in Van Dine’s output to enjoy.
~
S.S. van Dine on The Invisible Event
1. The Benson Murder Case (1926)
2. The ‘Canary’ Murder Case (1927)
3. The Greene Murder Case (1928)
4. The Bishop Murder Case (1929)
The Invisible Event 
Which Van Dines do you not have?
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Quicker to tell you that the ones I do have are Benson, ‘Canary’, and Kennel.
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You need to read Greene and Bishop and Scarab, all first-rate.
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Thanks, Nick. It’s my understanding that the first six are where Van Dine does his best work, so I’m keen on this evidence to read as many of those as possible. The only difficulty is finding decent editions — all the readily-available ones in the UK seem to be copyright-flouting cheap Kindle versions that have been rushed out without any real respect for the author or his work.
But, well, that just gives me another long-term project, I guess 🙂 Now I’ve got all of Carr and Crofts and Thorndyke, and with the Complete James Ronald coming out from Moonstone, my hunting has been (wonderfully) restricted. So some white whales to hunt at least gives me an excuse to haunt any secondhand bookstores I find…
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There are only a dozen of ’em! You have three, which (my maths isn’t as good as yours) is, what, a quarter? Avenel put out an omnibus that had Benson, Canary, Bishop and Scarab. Otherwise, Kindle. (But it’s not as much fun.)
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Ah, there’s the rub: even the Kindle editions available in the UK seem to be poorly-produced copies. Oh, for some quality paperback reissues…!
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Not copyright-flouting, his copyright has expired in the UK. Faded Page have a number of versions that seem well-produced, you should be able to read them with a clear conscience and without annoyance. Here is one link: https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20131125
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Ah, many thanks — and, yes, I was incorrect in the use of “flouting”, so thank-you for the correction. Still, out of copyright or no, some effort could surely be into a few more quality paperback reprints, no? I appreciate the link to the ebooks, but shall remain hopeful of finding “real” books for the time being.
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I reread this again in July and generally liked it. Sure I skipped over a some paragraphs as you did but it certainly wasn’t any chore overall. Then again, I’ve never had the issues some (many?) claim to experience when it comes to the character or speech patterns of Philo Vance.
By the way, those AMC books really are nicely put together and presented as well as featuring some great titles, it’s grown into one of my favorite lines.
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The AMC and BL reprints really do lead the way in terms of quality of product — the books feel great and look fabulous. That they manage to be such high quality and so affordable is a double win as far as I’m concerned.
And, yes — or maybe no — I don’t (yet…!) see the frustration of Vance; I quite liked him, not least because of that scene I mention above where he drops all the affected speech. The sense of his character being important to him is genuinely very interesting indeed.
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Hurrah – another fan found! Well, I think you knew I was a fan. The first 4 (Benson, Canary, Greene, Bishop) are the absolute best, but Kennel, Scarab and Dragon are very solid and fun too – there is a noticeable drop after that but I think the twelfth and final novel, Winter, is pretty decent actually. By the way, the novels are, as far as I know, genuinely out of copyright.
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The novels being out of copyright would appear to be correct, given the dodgy editions available for sale on Amazon. Plenty of classic reprint editions to track down, though I’d love some new editions of this sort of quality. Ah, well…
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I’m glad that you liked it. A bit of a relief when you didn’t hate it! Was great to read your full thoughts on it. I must get round to re-reading it and actually reviewing it soon.
Reprint wise, AMC are doing Greene! Bookshop.org has it as being released on 17th September, but they also have it as out of stock. Which I seem to remember being a perpetual problem with the AMCs in the past.
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I’m grateful for you bringing this up in conversation, because I could see me avoiding Vance for a number of years yet — so that chat and this reissue came at a very serendipitous time 🙂
I saw the AMC have done Greene, which is very cool. Benson was unavailable for months and month then suddenly seemed to pop into existence very briefly, in which window I was able to nab a copy. So I think it might be a case of being watchful and a little patient. Thankfully I have “Canary”, the second book, to keep me going when the Vance Bug bites again.
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Stay away from The Dragon Murder Case! I know we disagree more often than not, but trust me, that one will make you angry. Not only will it make you agree with the Vance needs a kick in the pance school of thought, but Van Dine should get a licking as well. The reader has been warned!
You’ve already read my recommendation, The Kennel Murder Case, which I think is Van Dine’s at his best and most readable.
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I remember very little about Kennel, but I’m intending on reading the first six now, so I’ll get back to it in due course.
Dragon, I seem to remember, falls outside the first six, so I’ll see how I’m feeling — and how long it’s taken me to get there…! — before going any further, but your opinion is noted and appreciated. I’m intigued, but maybe I can just look up the solution in Adey.
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Without giving away too much, The Dragon Murder Case is a perfect illustration of why a coincidence putting a plot in motion is sometimes preferable to a diabolically, step-by-step planned out scheme. Especially when something as unpredictable as a drinking party is takes center stage of that diabolical scheme. It could have been a fun, pulpy and almost Scooby Doo-ish mystery novel, but not in the hands of Van Dine.
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You intrigue me more and more…!
But, well, I’m still several books away — I’d like to do these in order, including revisiting Kennel — so let’s see how I feel about these by the time I’ve tracked down and read Greene, Bishop, and Scarab.
At least Dragon comes next, so I won’t have to wade too far through dreck if I am curious.
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