The Benson Murder Case (American Mystery Classics)

The Benson Murder Case (American Mystery Classics) by S.S. Van Dine

All of Manhattan high society is abuzz after playboy stockbroker Alvin Benson is discovered dead in a locked room in his brownstone mansion, slumped over in an easy chair with a bullet in his head. Ballistics experts, detectives, and the NYPD's top brass can't solve the crime, but luckily they don't have to: New York's leading flaneur and art connoisseur, Philo Vance, is on the case, and he's got precisely the far-flung and esoteric knowledge needed to interpret the clues and determine whodunnit.

By carefully examining the crime scene and reconstructing the deadly shooting, Vance determines a number of things about the murderer, including his or her height -- and this is only the first of many deductive feats that he will pull off before the investigation comes to a close.

The first novel in one of the most influential detective series of the early twentieth century, The Benson Murder Case features a brain sleuth, a puzzling plot, and an aristocratic 1920s New York setting sure to please any fan of classic mystery fiction.

S.S. Van Dine is the pseudonym American art critic Willard Huntington Wright (1888 - 1939) used when he wrote about his immensely popular Philo Vance character.