The Dragon Murder Case

infobox Book |
name = The Dragon Murder Case
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = S. S. Van Dine
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Philo Vance
genre = Mystery, Novel
publisher = Charles Scribner's (USA) & Cassell (UK)
release_date = 1934
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 311
isbn =
preceded_by = The Kennel Murder Case
followed_by = The Casino Murder Case

"The Dragon Murder Case", first published in 1934, is a novel by S. S. Van Dine featuring the character Philo Vance.

A guest at an estate in northern Manhattan (New York) dives into the swimming pool and disappears. His murder brings up references to a mythological dragon which is said to prey on the incautious, but Philo Vance uses his knowledge of both dragons and criminals to demonstrate whodunnit.

The estate in the novel was based on Tryon Hall, a mansion in Fort Tryon Park built after 1900 by Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings, a retired president of the Chicago Coke and Gas Company. In 1917 he sold the mansion to John D. Rockefeller Jr.. The mansion burned down in 1925, and Rockefeller donated the land it was on to the city. (More information on the building and land under the "Fort Tryon and Frankfurt-on-the-Hudson" section of Hudson Heights article.)

Literary significance and criticism

This book is the first of the final six Vance books.

"The decline in the last six Vance books is so steep that the critic who called the ninth of them one more stitch in his literary shroud was not overstating the case." [Symons, Julian, "Bloody Murder", London: Faber and Faber 1972, with revisions in Penguin Books 1974, ISBN 0 14 003794 2] '

"The estate and its denizens are meant to be as picturesque as the persons and the plot, but all succeed only in being as egregious and improbable as Philo Vance and his antics. This tale is one of the author's worst ..."Barzun, Jacques and Taylor, Wendell Hertig. "A Catalogue of Crime". New York: Harper & Row. 1971, revised and enlarged edition 1989. ISBN 0-06-015796-8]

Film adaptation

"The Dragon Murder Case" (1934) starred Warren William as Philo Vance and featured a dragon behind the opening and closing credits.

External links

* [http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks04/0400431.txt The text of the novel is available from Project Gutenberg, Australia]

References