La mia prima impressione di Philo Vance, aristocratico che si dedica a risolvere crimini troppo intricati per la polizia uscito dalla penna di S.S. Van Dine, è stata di antipatia. È uno di quegli uomini che vi fanno alzare gli occhi al cielo così spesso da farvi rischiare di cadere in un fosso.

Del romanzo si salva il fatto che la soluzione è abbastanza intricata da tenere desta l’attenzione, ma questo interesse viene costantemente minato dal fatto che Vance sappia la soluzione, ma impieghi pagine e pagine inutili per farla sapere anche a noi, facendo il prezioso e facendoci venire il latte alle ginocchia.

Spero che i prossimi libri della serie siano più accattivanti perché ho il mammuttazzo della Newton Compton con tutti i romanzi… ( )

Alvin H. Benson, a well-known broker on Wall Street, is found dead in his apartment from a bullet to the head. John F.-X Markham, D.A. stops by Philo Vance’s apartment to invite Vance along to participate on the investigation per a previous conversation.

Vance seems to have a wide knowledge on a variety of subjects — even investigation of murder, besides the fact this is his first time.

Benton’s brother had called on Markham to handle the investigation due to friendship. Markham prefers to keep in the background and is interested to see if Vance can handle it.

At first, possible suspects are few, but after digging into Benson’s business and financial matters, there turns up a number of suspects.

This is the first case of the Philo Vance series. S.S. Van Dine, narrator of the case, introduces the reader to Philo Vance and the details of the case. Various characters, who appear in following books are introduced: John F.-X. Markham D.A. of New York County; Currie, Vance’s valet. Just to name a few. The writing style is different from current styles and there are quite a few footnotes throughout the book. ( )

Un bel giallo, un classico imperdibile da leggere assolutamente.
Già letto in un lontano passato, ho voluto ascoltarne anche la versione Audible ma la persona scelta per leggerlo proprio non va, è da dimenticare in ogni modo. Una voce piatta e monocorde e la totale assenza di una qualsiasi minima interpretazione riescono a rendere noiosa e soporifera una storia che non lo è affatto.
Cinque stelle al testo, ma se fosse per chi lo legge non ne darei neanche una! ( )

Basada en el asesinato real de un célebre jugador de bridge, es la primera de las aventuras del excéntrico detective aficionado Philo Vance, que investiga y resuelve un complicado caso gracias a los métodos deductivos y a su olfato para comprender las sutilezas de la psicología humana...

Microscopic Edition may require reading with a Magnifying Glass
Review of the Flame Tree Collectable Crime Classics hardcover edition (2020) of the 1926 original

Normally I wouldn't start a review of a print edition with a survey of its physical features, but this very recent publication of a 1926 Golden Age of Crime classic does require some commentary about those aspects.

This Flame Tree Collectable Crime Classic hardcover measures 3.66 x 5.91 inches, i.e. it is roughly 2/5ths the size of a contemporary 6x9 inch hardcover. The print font is reduced accordingly to about 7-8 pt. font size (I think regular book size font is 10-11 pt. and large print 13-14 pt.) making it still readable (I admit to exaggerating the need for a magnifying glass in my lede), but definitely awkward and perhaps an eye strain for some.

Another advertised feature of this series is "a glossary of Victorian and Literary terms" which is provided as an appendix. This 40-page "feature" was quite useless in the context of the American origin of The Benson Murder Case, as the British-centric glossary seems to have been produced for generic use in British crime classics only. The un-usefulness of the glossary was made even more evident when snobbish amateur sleuth Philo Vance makes use of various classic Latin, German and French expressions several dozen times, but for which no translation or explanation is provided (although most are understandable in context). This is one time when your "benefits of a classical education" might actually be of some benefit.

Other physical features such as "deluxe cover treatments, ribbon markers, luxury endpapers and gilded edges" were admittedly nice to look at. The ribbon marker was definitely useful as a bookmark. The gilded lettering on the "deluxe" cover and spine started to wear away though with regular usage during the course of 1 week of reading.

As for the book itself, this was my first reading of an S.S. Van Dine novel (the pseudonym of Willard Wright) and I searched it out because of my recent enjoyment of Marlowe Benn's Julia Kydd Jazz-Age amateur sleuth series, where Willard Wright makes regular cameo appearances. Van Dine's Philo Vance seems to be a Americanized version of Dorothy L. Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey, having the same wealth and artistic interests, but none of the Brit's charismatic humour and human warmth. Vance does have an interesting manner of detection though which mostly ignores physical clues and instead focusses on the psychological aspects of the crime. He revels in displaying aspects of the physical clues though to the authorities but mostly only in order to demonstrate how they will lead their investigations astray and cause the arrest of innocent people.

I will probably still attempt to seek out other copies of S.S. Van Dine's works although they seem to have fallen out of favour. The Toronto Public Library system for instance has only 2 reference copies of The Benson Murder Case in their stacks, with none available for lending.

Trivia and Link
Willard Wright aka S.S. Van Dine is also the author of the Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories. ( )