The gloomy Greene mansion in New York is the scene of a double tragedy. The eldest sister is shot and killed; the youngest, a sister by adoption, is wounded by an unknown intruder. While Philo Vance and his friend Markham the district attorney are working on the case, the two Greene brothers are killed.

Philo Vance, the snobbish art collector who happens to be the longtime friend of District Attorney John Markham, once more finds himself drawn into a criminal investigation. Margaret Odell, the beautiful and talented theatrical singer nicknamed “The Canary,” has been strangled during the night, and from the very beginning there are signs that nothing in the case is quite what it appears to be. Accompanied once more by Sergeant Heath, the unlikely trio struggle to make sense of the evidence. S. S. Van Dine found even more success with this novel, his sophomore outing as a mystery writer. Spending months on the bestseller lists, it was also the first of his books to be made into a movie, with William Powell starring as Philo Vance. At a time when a majority of successful mystery writers were English, Van Dine’s novels evoked an atmosphere that was distinctly American, with Vance’s cultured perspective colliding with Markham’s pragmatic sensibilities and Heath’s no-nonsense street smarts. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

In this classic 1920s mystery, a wealthy dilettante turned amateur sleuth must determine who wants to kill off one of Manhattan’s greatest families. Chester Greene has come to the office of New York District Attorney John Markham in need of help. Someone broke into his family’s East Side mansion, shot one of his sisters dead, and left another sister wounded. The police believe it to be the work of a panicked burglar, but Chester doesn’t buy it. Fortunately for Chester, the brilliant amateur detective Philo Vance happens to be in Markham’s office, and he doesn’t agree with the police either. Unfortunately for Vance, the Greene family is mired in secrets. Getting a handle on the case isn’t easy when someone keeps killing the suspects. Is there a rotten branch on this family tree? Is there a servant with an axe to grind? Who is behind those footprints in the snow? And can paralytic Mrs. Greene actually walk? It’s up to Vance to find the answers and nab the killer before the Greene family sees more red. Praise for The Greene Murder Case “As in every detective story, the appearance of the culprit, unmasked, must be the main surprise which ends an unbroken and increasing train of suspense. The skill with which Mr. Van Dine does this is beautifully complicated and adroit, and without recourse to any unfair trickery or concealment.” —The Atlantic

At the height if his popularity, S.S. Vane Dine pens a locked-room mystery with a lethal dose of sex and sin where infamous actress, "The Canary," is murdered in her cage after a passionate night with her lover. Margaret Odell, the famous Broadway beauty and ex-Follies girl known as "The Canary", is found murdered in her ransacked apartment, her jewelry stolen. It appears to be a robbery gone wrong, but the police can find no physical evidence to pinpoint a culprit. No one witnessed anyone entering or leaving, and the only unwatched entrance to the apartment building was bolted from the inside. Who could have killed the Canary in her locked cage? Margaret was seeing a number of men, ranging from high society gentleman to ruthless gangsters, and more than one man visited her apartment on the night she died.

Philo Vance is a stylish, even foppish dandy, a New York dilettante and bon vivant possessing a highly intellectual bent he likes to use for solving some quite complicated crimes. His methods are unusual and often in contradiction to the firm police rules and official requirements, but his wit always gets him a step further. Philo Vance novels were chronicled by his friend Van Dine, who appears as a kind of Dr. Watson figure in the books. Table of Contents: Introduction Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories The Philo Vance Series The Benson Murder Case The Canary Murder Case The Greene Murder Case The Bishop Murder Case The Scarab Murder Case The Kennel Murder Case The Dragon Murder Case The Casino Murder Case The Garden Murder Case The Kidnap Murder Case The Gracie Allen Murder Case The Winter Murder Case S. S. Van Dine is the pseudonym used by American art critic Willard Huntington Wright when he wrote detective novels. He was an important figure in avant-garde cultural circles in pre-WWI New York, and under the pseudonym he created the immensely popular fictional detective Philo Vance.