An acknowledged historical landmark whose insufferable hero retains all his power to annoy.
The most polarizing detective from the golden age, or maybe ever, returns in this reprint of his debut appearance.
As both the first chapter and the introduction by Ragnar Jónasson make clear, Philo Vance is a languid Oxford-educated dilettante with an interest in art, philosophy, and contempt. So it’s only natural that Manhattan District Attorney John F.-X. Markham would indulge his friend’s desire to traipse along to the apartment of financial broker and man about town Alvin H. Benson, who’s been shot through the head as he sat reading in an easy chair (no rationale is given for the DA’s own need to be on the scene). Vance, accompanied by Van Dine, his legal adviser, agent, and virtually mute amanuensis, solves the crime, as it turns out, within five minutes. Instead of enlightening Markham or the Homicide Bureau’s Sgt. Ernest Heath, though, he stands idly by for nearly a week, bestirring himself only to scoff at Markham’s plans to arrest first Muriel St. Clair, who shared Benson’s last dinner, then her fiance, Capt. Philip Leacock, then Benson’s old friend Leander Pfyfe. When the action lags, Vance weighs in with opinions about classical music or the inferiority of Japanese to Chinese art or apothegms like “the only crimes that are ever solved are those planned by stupid people.” Vance pooh-poohs so many of the suspects that the identification of the last man standing will come as a surprise only to Markham. This first of his dozen cases was an instant bestseller in 1926, presumably because your great-grandparents were able to find real ingenuity in Vance’s scorn of material evidence in favor of high school psychology.
An acknowledged historical landmark whose insufferable hero retains all his power to annoy.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-61316-331-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: American Mystery Classics
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.
Too much free time leads a New Hampshire bookseller into yet another case of murder.
Now that Tricia Miles has Pixie Poe and Mr. Everett practically running her bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, she finds herself at loose ends. Her wealthy sister, Angelica, who in the guise of Nigela Ricita has invested heavily in making Stoneham a bookish tourist attraction, is entering the amateur competition for the Great Booktown Bake-Off. So Tricia, who’s recently taken up baking as a hobby, decides to join her and spends a lot of time looking for the perfect cupcake recipe. A visit to another bookstore leaves Tricia witnessing a nasty argument between owner Joyce Widman and next-door neighbor Vera Olson over the trimming of tree branches that hang over Joyce’s yard—also overheard by new town police officer Cindy Pearson. After Tricia accepts Joyce’s offer of some produce from her garden, they find Vera skewered by a pitchfork, and when Police Chief Grant Baker arrives, Joyce is his obvious suspect. Ever since Tricia moved to Stoneham, the homicide rate has skyrocketed (Poisoned Pages, 2018, etc.), and her history with Baker is fraught. She’s also become suspicious about the activities at Pets-A-Plenty, the animal shelter where Vera was a dedicated volunteer. Tricia’s offered her expertise to the board, but president Toby Kingston has been less than welcoming. With nothing but baking on her calendar, Tricia has plenty of time to investigate both the murder and her vague suspicions about the shelter. Plenty of small-town friendships and rivalries emerge in her quest for the truth.
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0272-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
This book and its author are cleverer than you and want you to know it.
In this mystery, the narrator constantly adds commentary on how the story is constructed.
In 1929, during the golden age of mysteries, a (real-life) writer named Ronald Knox published the “10 Commandments of Detective Fiction,” 10 rules that mystery writers should obey in order to “play fair.” When faced with his own mystery story, our narrator, an author named Ernest Cunningham who "write[s] books about how to write books," feels like he must follow these rules himself. The story seemingly begins on the night his brother Michael calls to ask him to help bury a body—and shows up with the body and a bag containing $267,000. Fast-forward three years, and Ernie’s family has gathered at a ski resort to celebrate Michael’s release from prison. The family dynamics are, to put it lightly, complicated—and that’s before a man shows up dead in the snow and Michael arrives with a coffin in a truck. When the local cop arrests Michael for the murder, things get even more complicated: There are more deaths; Michael tells a story about a coverup involving their father, who was part of a gang called the Sabers; and Ernie still has (most of) the money and isn’t sure whom to trust or what to do with it. Eventually, Ernie puts all the pieces together and gathers the (remaining) family members and various extras for the great denouement. As the plot develops, it becomes clear that there’s a pretty interesting mystery at the heart of this novel, but Stevenson’s postmodern style has Ernie constantly breaking the fourth wall to explain how the structure of his story meets the criteria for a successful detective story. Some readers are drawn to mysteries because they love the formula and logic—this one’s for them. If you like the slow, sometimes-creepy, sometimes-comforting unspooling of a good mystery, it might not be your cup of tea—though the ending, to be fair, is still something of a surprise.
This book and its author are cleverer than you and want you to know it.Pub Date: Jan. 17, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-06-327902-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Mariner Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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