โ Scribed by S. S. Van Dine
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
It was exactly three months after the startling termination of the Scarab murder case* that Philo Vance was drawn into the subtlest and the most perplexing of all the criminal problems that came his way during the four years of John F.-X. Markham's incumbency as District Attorney of New York County.
* "The Scarab Murder Case" (Scribners, 1930).
Indeed, so mystifying was this case, so apparently inexplicable were its conflicting elements, that the police were for adding it to their list of unsolved murder mysteries. And they would have been justified in their decision; for rarely in the annals of modern crime has there been a case that seemed to reverse so completely the rational laws by which humanity lives and reasons. In the words of the doughty and practical Sergeant Ernest Heath of the Homicide Bureau, the case "didn't make sense." On the surface it smacked of strange and terrifying magic, of witch-doctors and miracle-workers; and every line of investigation ran into a blank wall.
In fact, the case had every outward appearance of being what arm-chair criminologists delight in calling the perfect crime. And, to make the plotting of the murderer even more mystifying, a diabolical concatenation of circumstances was superimposed upon the events by some whimsical and perverse god, which tended to strengthen every weak link in the culprit's chain of ratiocination, and to turn the entire bloody affair into a maze of incomprehensibility.
Curiously enough, however, it was the very excess of ardor on the part of the murderer when attempting to divert suspicion, that created a minute hole in the wall of mystery, through which Vance was able to see a glimmer of light. In the process of following that light to the truth, Vance did what I believe was the shrewdest and profoundest detective work of his career. It was his peculiar knowledge of special and out-of-the-way facts, combined with his almost uncanny perception of human nature, that made it possible for him to seize upon apparently unimportant clues and resolve them into a devastating syllogism.
Vance for years had been a breeder of Scottish terriers. His kennels were in New Jersey, an hour's ride from New York, and he spent much of his time there studying pedigrees, breeding for certain characteristics which he believed essential to the ideal terrier, and watching the results of his theories. Sometimes I think he manifested a greater enthusiasm in his dogs than in any other recreative phase of his life; and the only time I have seen evidences of a thrill in his eyes comparable to that when he had unearthed and acquired a magnificent Cรฉzanne water-color or discovered a rare piece of Chinese ceremonial jade in a mass of opaque modern recuttings, was when one of his dogs went up to Winners.
I mention this fact--or idiosyncrasy, if you prefer--because it so happened that Vance's ability to look at a certain stray Scottish terrier and recognize its blood-lines and show qualities, was what led him to one phase of the truth in the remarkable case which I am now recording.
Golden Age Mystery
๐ SIMILAR VOLUMES
When Archer Coe, a collector of Chinese ceramics, is found dead in his bedroom with the door bolted on the inside, everybody from the district attorney to the medical examiner regards it as suicide. But detective Philo Vance suspects a sinister and carefully crafted murder. Although the circumstance
Archer Coe aparece muerto en su habitaciรณn. La puerta estรก con el cerrojo corrido; las ventanas, cerradas... Todo hace pensar en un suicidio. Pero hay algo que no estรก conforme con esta idea, a pesar de tener el muerto una herida en la sien y un revรณlver en la mano. Philo Vance asegura que es asesin
Archer Coe aparece muerto en su habitaciรณn. La puerta estรก con el cerrojo corrido; las ventanas, cerradas... Todo hace pensar en un suicidio. Pero hay algo que no estรก conforme con esta idea, a pesar de tener el muerto una herida en la sien y un revรณlver en la mano. Philo Vance asegura que es asesin
Dashiell Hammett's story of The Maltese Falcon comes to life in the witty tenth instalment of George Baxt's popular celebrity mystery series. It's 1941, and in between battles with his third wife, Mayo Methot, Humphrey Bogart is preparing to star with friends Mary Astor and Peter Lorre in what will
โDanger,โ whispered Marlene. โHow exciting!โ โDanger from some of your guests.โ Anna Mae Wong's eyes were dark with foreboding. โThat is quite possible,โ said Marlene. โI've invited the Marx Brothers.โ New Year's Eve, 1931: Marlene Dietrich, as the reigning queen of Hollywood, sees fit to throw