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The Benson Murder Case - A Philo Vance Story

The Benson Murder Case - A Philo Vance Story

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Genre(s): ,

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Number of Chapters: 25

Length: 10 hours and 38 minutes

Language: English

The Benson Murder Case – A Philo Vance Story is the first of a series of twelve popular mysteries set in New York during the Jazz Age. S. S. Van Dine is the nom de plume of prominent art critic, and member of New York’s avant-garde, W. H. Wright. He rapidly became one of the country’s best-selling authors and the series remained immensely popular for decades, as Philo Vance was featured in dozens of movies, plays and radio shows.

Van Dine’s novels marked a sharp departure from earlier detective fiction. To begin with, the hero represents the antithesis of the familiar hard-boiled detective. He is an eccentric and volatile loner; a highly erudite aesthete; a debonair bon vivant; a fop. Indeed, Van Dine even flirts with his hero’s sexuality where, for instance, a friend tells Vance: “I trust you won’t wear your green carnation,” – then the symbol of homosexuality. Moreover, Philo Vance approaches crime from a totally new standpoint, more or less ignoring the sorts of evidence and inference generally used to solve mysteries. His perspective is primarily psychological. Thus, he tells his friend Van: “The truth can be learned only by an analysis of the psychological factors of a crime, and an application of them to the individual. The only real clues are psychological—not material.” (The author casts himself in the role of the narrator, “Van,” Vance’s old college friend, now his lawyer, advisor and general agent.)

Within minutes of viewing the scene of the crime, Vance throws out veiled hints and innuendos that he knows who murdered Alvin Benson. D. A. John Markham good-humoredly ignores these intimations and soon finds there is enough evidence to make an arrest, when Vance convinces him that his suspect could not possibly be guilty. After developing a strong evidential case against someone else, Vance proves that this second suspect, too, must be innocent. And so, it goes with several more suspects. In the end Vance identifies, and explains how his reasoning immediately pointed to, the actual murderer. (Summary by Kirsten Wever)

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Chapter 1 - Philo Vance at Home (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 2 - At the Scene of the Crime (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 3 - A Lady's Hand-bag (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 4 - The Housekeeper's Story (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 5 – Gathering Information (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 6 – Vance Offers an Opinion (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 7 – Reports an Interview (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 8 – Vance Accepts a Challenge (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 9 – The Height of the Murderer (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 10 – Eliminating a Suspect (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 11 – A Motive and a Threat (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 12 – The Owner of a Colt-.45 (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 13 – The Grey Cadillac (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 14 – Links in the Chain (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 15 – Pfyfe – Personal (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 16 – Admissions and Suppressions (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 17 – The Forged Check (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 18 – A Confession (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 19 – Vance Cross-Examines (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 20 – A Lady Explains (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 21 – Sartorial Revelations (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 22 – Vance Outlines a Theory (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 23 – Checking an Alibi (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 24 – The Arrest (Kirsten Wever)
Chapter 25 – Vance Explains His Methods (Kirsten Wever)
The audiobook The Benson Murder Case - A Philo Vance Story falls under the genres of , . It is written by .