The Greatest Murder Mysteries of S. S. Van Dine - 12 Titles in One Volume (Illustrated Edition). S.S. Van Dine

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      But although he was personally credited with the many important indictments and subsequent convictions that he secured, the truth is that he was only an instrument in many of his most famous cases. The man who actually solved them and supplied the evidence for their prosecution, was in no way connected with the city’s administration, and never once came into the public eye.

      At that time I happened to be both legal advisor and personal friend of this other man; and it was thus that the strange and amazing facts of the situation became known to me. But not until recently have I been at liberty to make them public. Even now I am not permitted to divulge the man’s name, and, for that reason, I have chosen, arbitrarily, to refer to him throughout these ex-officio reports as Philo Vance.

      It is, of course, possible that some of his acquaintances may, through my revelations, be able to guess his identity; and if such should prove the case, I beg of them to guard that knowledge; for though he has now gone to Italy to live, and has given me permission to record the exploits of which he was the unique central character, he has very emphatically imposed his anonymity upon me; and I should not like to feel that, through any lack of discretion or delicacy, I have been the cause of his secret becoming generally known.

      The present chronicle has to do with Vance’s solution of the notorious Benson murder which, due to the unexpectedness of the crime, the prominence of the persons involved, and the startling evidence adduced, was invested with an interest rarely surpassed in the annals of New York’s criminal history.

      This sensational case was the first of many in which Vance figured as a kind of amicus curiæ in Markham’s investigations.

      S. S. Van Dine.

      New York.

Table of Contents

       CHAPTER I. PHILO VANCE AT HOME

       CHAPTER II. AT THE SCENE OF THE CRIME

       CHAPTER III. A LADY’S HAND-BAG

       CHAPTER IV. THE HOUSEKEEPER’S STORY

       CHAPTER V. GATHERING INFORMATION

       CHAPTER VI. VANCE OFFERS AN OPINION

       CHAPTER VII. REPORTS AND AN INTERVIEW

       CHAPTER VIII. VANCE ACCEPTS A CHALLENGE

       CHAPTER IX. THE HEIGHT OF THE MURDERER

       CHAPTER X. ELIMINATING A SUSPECT

       CHAPTER XI. A MOTIVE AND A THREAT

       CHAPTER XII. THE OWNER OF A COLT-.45

       CHAPTER XIII. THE GREY CADILLAC

       CHAPTER XIV. LINKS IN THE CHAIN

       CHAPTER XV. “PFYFE—PERSONAL”

       CHAPTER XVI. ADMISSIONS AND SUPPRESSIONS

       CHAPTER XVII. THE FORGED CHECK

       CHAPTER XVIII. A CONFESSION

       CHAPTER XIX. VANCE CROSS-EXAMINES

       CHAPTER XX. A LADY EXPLAINS

       CHAPTER XXI. SARTORIAL REVELATIONS

       CHAPTER XXII. VANCE OUTLINES A THEORY

       CHAPTER XXIII. CHECKING AN ALIBI

       CHAPTER XXIV. THE ARREST

       CHAPTER XXV. VANCE EXPLAINS HIS METHODS

      CHARACTERS OF THE BOOK

      Philo Vance

      John F.-X. Markham

      District Attorney of New York County.

      Alvin H. Benson

      Well-known Wall Street broker and man-about-town, who was mysteriously murdered in his home.

      Major Anthony Benson

      Brother of the murdered man.

      Mrs. Anna Platz

      Housekeeper for Alvin Benson.

      Muriel St. Clair

      A young singer.

      Captain Philip Leacock

      Miss St. Clair’s fiancé.

      Leander Pfyfe

      Intimate friend of Alvin Benson’s.

      Mrs. Paula Banning

      A friend of Leander Pfyfe’s.

      Elsie Hoffman

      Secretary of the firm of Benson and Benson.

      Colonel Bigsby Ostrander

      A retired army officer.

      William H. Moriarty

      An alderman, Borough of the Bronx.

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