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Philo Vance #9
The Garden Murder Case
In the ninth novels in the series, "The Garden Murder Case," Philo Vance investigates a murder and other suspicious events connected with the rooftop garden of the Garden's New York penthouse, where a group friends gather to listen to the result of horse races.
332 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1935
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
March 22, 2024
Murder on the Penthouse Roof Garden
Review of the Felony & Mayhem Kindle eBook edition (December 14, 2020) of the Scribner’s hardcover original (1935).
Even though The Garden Murder Case has the usual Van Dine tropes of the 'apparently innocent witness who is in fact the real culprit' and 'who will escape standard criminal justice by some method of circumstance', you still have to smile when you see that the writer is self-effacing enough to include the Ogden Nash couplet in his text, albeit as a footnote.
The case does have an intriguing start. Philo Vance and his 'Watson' Van Dine attend a penthouse gathering where the host runs an off-track betting emporium for his family and friends. One relative is in desperate straits and makes a huge bet on their anticipated winner of the day's big race. They then adjourn to the rooftop garden to avoid being studied by the other guests. After the race is run and the winner proves to be another horse, a shot rings out and the reckless bettor is found dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot from a nearby revolver. Everyone except Vance says it is suicide. Vance of course knows that it is murder.
The front cover of the original Scribner’s first edition (1935). Image sourced from Wikipedia.
We then go through the standard machinations where various red herrings and other apparent suspects are paraded before us. Vance eventually does the standard 'gather all the suspects together in a reenactment' trick to draw out the real culprit. It has a shocking twist for a first-time reader, but if you've read several Vances in a row as I now have, the finale requires the now expected Unsatisfactory Ending Alert™.
Trivia and Links
The Garden Murder Case was adapted as the same-titled film The Garden Murder Case (1936) directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring Edmund Lowe as Philo Vance. You can see the original trailer on YouTube here.
Willard Huntington Wright aka S.S. Van Dine is also the author of the Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories.
Review of the Felony & Mayhem Kindle eBook edition (December 14, 2020) of the Scribner’s hardcover original (1935).
“But that isn’t fair to Mr. Van Dine. Where would you be without him, Mr. Vance?”
“I admit I’d be unknown and unsung,” returned Vance. “But I’d be a happier man – an obscure, but free, spirit. And I’d never have unconsciously provided the inspiration for Ogden Nash’s poetic masterpiece.”*
* Vance was referring to Nash’s famous couplet: “Philo Vance Needs a kick in the pance.”
Even though The Garden Murder Case has the usual Van Dine tropes of the 'apparently innocent witness who is in fact the real culprit' and 'who will escape standard criminal justice by some method of circumstance', you still have to smile when you see that the writer is self-effacing enough to include the Ogden Nash couplet in his text, albeit as a footnote.
The case does have an intriguing start. Philo Vance and his 'Watson' Van Dine attend a penthouse gathering where the host runs an off-track betting emporium for his family and friends. One relative is in desperate straits and makes a huge bet on their anticipated winner of the day's big race. They then adjourn to the rooftop garden to avoid being studied by the other guests. After the race is run and the winner proves to be another horse, a shot rings out and the reckless bettor is found dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot from a nearby revolver. Everyone except Vance says it is suicide. Vance of course knows that it is murder.
The front cover of the original Scribner’s first edition (1935). Image sourced from Wikipedia.
We then go through the standard machinations where various red herrings and other apparent suspects are paraded before us. Vance eventually does the standard 'gather all the suspects together in a reenactment' trick to draw out the real culprit. It has a shocking twist for a first-time reader, but if you've read several Vances in a row as I now have, the finale requires the now expected Unsatisfactory Ending Alert™.
Trivia and Links
The Garden Murder Case was adapted as the same-titled film The Garden Murder Case (1936) directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring Edmund Lowe as Philo Vance. You can see the original trailer on YouTube here.
Willard Huntington Wright aka S.S. Van Dine is also the author of the Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories.
December 23, 2023
Non male, un po' più coerente del solito. Gradevole non ostante l'antipatia del protagonista.
October 27, 2016
The setting of The Garden Murder Case (1935), S. S. Van Dine's ninth mystery novel featuring that stylish, intellectual detective Philo Vance, is a rooftop penthouse. Vance receives a not-so-anonymous phone message that piques his interest in the nest socialite gathering of Floyd Garden and his friends to listen to the outcome of horse races in the comfort of his father's luxurious penthouse. Drinks are made to order and wagers are placed to the bookies by Floyd on his direct bookie line. Despite the caller's refusal to leave a name, Vance immediately recognizes the phrasing and key words as pointing to Dr. Siefert who attends the Garden family--post particularly Mrs. Garden who suffers from a mysterious malady.
"There is a most disturbing psychological tension at Professor Ephraim Garden's apartment, which resists diagnosis. Read up on radioactive sodium. See book XI of the Aeneid, line 875. Equanimity is essential."
Equanimity is the name of a horse set to race in the Rivermont Handicap the next day. Since Vance and Floyd Garden share membership in a club, Vance has a standing invitation to join the racing festivities any time and he decides to take advantage of it the very next day.
Vance and his Boswell, Van Dine immediately sense the tension in the air. They meet all the essential players from Floyd Garden to his mother to his friend and cousin, Woode Swift. Also in the mix are two lovely young women, Zalia Graem and Madge Weatherby, who seem to have divided the attentions of the men (not necessarily equally) including Cecil Kroon and Lowe Hammerle, two more of the sporting crowd. And even Mrs. Garden's nurse Bernice Beeton gets in on the betting action. When the final wagers are placed, Swift has placed last cent he has on Equanimity--a horse that Vance, who is a fair hand at handicapping horses, does not believe will be up to the job.
Swift has had the habit of going up to the rooftop garden to listen to the results alone. As soon as the final race is finished and it is clear that Equanimity has lost the race, a gunshot is heard and at first glance it looks like Swift has committed suicide upon hearing that all his money has been lost as well. But Vance spots several indications that someone has used Swift's loss as a clever cover for murder. And the murder isn't finished...the nurse is trapped in a paper vault with poisonous gas and Floyd's mother will also be killed before Vance is able to solve the crime. There is no tangible proof that District Attorney Markham could use to go to trial, so Philo Vance uses himself as bait to capture the killer on film when they try to push him off the garden balcony.
Van Dine has taken a lot of flack for his last six detective novels. In fact, crime novelist and critic Julian Symons wrote in Bloody Murder, "The decline in the last six Vance books is so steep that the critic who called the ninth of them [i.e. The Garden Murder Case] 'one more stitch in his literary shroud' was not overstating the case." But, honestly, I don't see that this is so very bad. It's not intricately plotted, but there are certainly enough red herrings to make things interesting and Vance isn't nearly as all-knowing in this one as is sometimes the case (he doesn't give a detailed lecture on horse racing as he has been wont to do about Chinese pottery, for example). The mystery provides a very pleasant day's reading--with familiar characters and enough mystification to keep you guessing for a good while. ★★★ and a half.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
"There is a most disturbing psychological tension at Professor Ephraim Garden's apartment, which resists diagnosis. Read up on radioactive sodium. See book XI of the Aeneid, line 875. Equanimity is essential."
Equanimity is the name of a horse set to race in the Rivermont Handicap the next day. Since Vance and Floyd Garden share membership in a club, Vance has a standing invitation to join the racing festivities any time and he decides to take advantage of it the very next day.
Vance and his Boswell, Van Dine immediately sense the tension in the air. They meet all the essential players from Floyd Garden to his mother to his friend and cousin, Woode Swift. Also in the mix are two lovely young women, Zalia Graem and Madge Weatherby, who seem to have divided the attentions of the men (not necessarily equally) including Cecil Kroon and Lowe Hammerle, two more of the sporting crowd. And even Mrs. Garden's nurse Bernice Beeton gets in on the betting action. When the final wagers are placed, Swift has placed last cent he has on Equanimity--a horse that Vance, who is a fair hand at handicapping horses, does not believe will be up to the job.
Swift has had the habit of going up to the rooftop garden to listen to the results alone. As soon as the final race is finished and it is clear that Equanimity has lost the race, a gunshot is heard and at first glance it looks like Swift has committed suicide upon hearing that all his money has been lost as well. But Vance spots several indications that someone has used Swift's loss as a clever cover for murder. And the murder isn't finished...the nurse is trapped in a paper vault with poisonous gas and Floyd's mother will also be killed before Vance is able to solve the crime. There is no tangible proof that District Attorney Markham could use to go to trial, so Philo Vance uses himself as bait to capture the killer on film when they try to push him off the garden balcony.
Van Dine has taken a lot of flack for his last six detective novels. In fact, crime novelist and critic Julian Symons wrote in Bloody Murder, "The decline in the last six Vance books is so steep that the critic who called the ninth of them [i.e. The Garden Murder Case] 'one more stitch in his literary shroud' was not overstating the case." But, honestly, I don't see that this is so very bad. It's not intricately plotted, but there are certainly enough red herrings to make things interesting and Vance isn't nearly as all-knowing in this one as is sometimes the case (he doesn't give a detailed lecture on horse racing as he has been wont to do about Chinese pottery, for example). The mystery provides a very pleasant day's reading--with familiar characters and enough mystification to keep you guessing for a good while. ★★★ and a half.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
January 15, 2016
A group of idle young people gather in the Gardens' lush penthouse apartment to bet on horse races. Alerted by an anonymous phone call, Philo Vance joins them, and is present to recognize that a presumed suicide is really a murder. Is it possible that this pearl of the intelligentsia may find a normal woman interesting as something more than a suspect?
July 11, 2015
A nice reading.
July 7, 2018
ENGLISH: This novel is similar to The Benson Murder Case (if not in details, in its general layout), but has a scientific flaw that made me guess who was the murderer and made it lose a lot of interest. In fact the climax at the last-but-one chapter did not surprise me at all, I was expecting it. In parallel to the murder case, there is a romantic riddle that I also guessed just before it was disclosed.
ESPAÑOL: Esta novela es similar a The Benson Murder Case (si no en detalle, sí en diseño), pero comete un fallo científico que me hizo adivinar quién era el asesino, y me hizo perder algo de interés. De hecho, el climax del penúltimo capítulo no me sorprendió en absoluto, lo estaba esperando. En paralelo al caso de los asesinatos, hay un enigma romántico que también adiviné justo antes de que se revelara.
ESPAÑOL: Esta novela es similar a The Benson Murder Case (si no en detalle, sí en diseño), pero comete un fallo científico que me hizo adivinar quién era el asesino, y me hizo perder algo de interés. De hecho, el climax del penúltimo capítulo no me sorprendió en absoluto, lo estaba esperando. En paralelo al caso de los asesinatos, hay un enigma romántico que también adiviné justo antes de que se revelara.
July 25, 2023
Philo Vance okuduğum en cool, en kendine has dedektif sanırım. Tanımlamak için doğru kelimeyi bulamıyorum şimdi: bohem, snob, entellektüel, kendine has bir espri anlayışı olan… her ne ise benim için çekici olduğu kesin.
Bu kitapta garden ailesinin evinde gerçekleşen bir cinayeti çözmeye çalışıyor. Bir süre sonra katilden şüphelenmeye başladım ben de başka bir motifle düşünmüştüm ama yine de tutturdum.
Bu kitapta garden ailesinin evinde gerçekleşen bir cinayeti çözmeye çalışıyor. Bir süre sonra katilden şüphelenmeye başladım ben de başka bir motifle düşünmüştüm ama yine de tutturdum.
November 11, 2023
The Garden Murder Case, Philo Vance's ninth outing monocle and all, is a bit of a return to form. The mystery itself is not amazing but the story and character interactions are entertaining and Van Dine has fun with it. Vance for the first time in the series finds a woman of interest, the icicle begins to melt, though Van Dine fools the reader even with that. The Ogden Nash doggerel about Vance ("Philo Vance/Needs a kick in the pance") is mentioned not once but twice. Many of the tropes, techniques, and twists of the earlier novels are repeated but that's par for the course with the series. [3½★]
December 2, 2025
I guessed the culprit almost immediately upon meeting them. I just couldn't quite pinpoint the reason until it was started to be explained. This felt like an attempt to copy Holmes, but in New York in the 1930's. It was entertaining for the first half, but the second half was conversations and laying out timelines in a pretty uninteresting way. The narrator is also completely invisible. No one interacts with him or talks to him and he does nothing important. He is the camera, noting what is important for us to know without knowing anything himself. I might be willing to try another one of these. I'm not sure starting on the 9th installment is a fair representation of the writing/characters. I was overall entertained, but it's nothing I'll really remember.
May 6, 2015
Philo Vance investigates a murder made to look like a suicide, with a background of horse racing.
These later books in the series tend to be more somber affairs than the earlier entries, and they don't seem to feature locked room puzzles, either. Still, I quite liked it. Philo Vance isn't for everybody, I guess, as I have heard of many people who absolutely hate the sleuth.
These later books in the series tend to be more somber affairs than the earlier entries, and they don't seem to feature locked room puzzles, either. Still, I quite liked it. Philo Vance isn't for everybody, I guess, as I have heard of many people who absolutely hate the sleuth.
June 3, 2018
The book provides some interesting insights into the horse racing world, and the description of the gathering, placing bets and listening to results on the radio is an interesting insight into the world of the 1930's. The book follows the usual Van Dine formula of the wealthy family whose members do not trust each other. When the matriarch, Martha, announces to the family that she is some annoyed and is going to change her will the next day, you just know she won't make it though the night. (Moral: If you are going to cut someone out of your will, do it before you tell them).
The killer is unmasked in a typical Van Dine trick - nothing the police would condone these days, but back in the 1930's Van Dine's police just sat back and watched the fun; knowing in the end that Vance's vigilante justice would mean no need for a prosecution.
Side note: I was peeved that Lowe Hammle, introduced as "fifty or thereabouts" is listed as "elderly" in the list of characters!
For a thorough synopsis and review, I invite to see Bev Hankin's review on her blog, MY READER'S BLOCK.
The killer is unmasked in a typical Van Dine trick - nothing the police would condone these days, but back in the 1930's Van Dine's police just sat back and watched the fun; knowing in the end that Vance's vigilante justice would mean no need for a prosecution.
Side note: I was peeved that Lowe Hammle, introduced as "fifty or thereabouts" is listed as "elderly" in the list of characters!
For a thorough synopsis and review, I invite to see Bev Hankin's review on her blog, MY READER'S BLOCK.
January 25, 2022
S.S. van Dine wrote 12 detective novels in the late 1920s and 1930s centered on private detective Philo Vance, a wealthy aesthete and connoisseur of the arts. The first six are very good: The Benson Murder Case (1926), The Canary Murder Case (1927), The Greene Murder Case (1928), The Bishop Murder Case (1929), The Scarab Murder Case (1930) and The Kennel Murder Case (1933). Less good but still interesting enough (although in declining order) are four more novels: The Dragon Murder Case (1933), The Casino Murder Case (1934), The Garden Murder Case (1935) and The Kidnap Murder Case (1936). Forgettable are the last two novels, both based on film scripts: The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1938) and The Winter Murder Case (1939).
S.S. van Dine was enormously popular between 1926 and 1936, something which is also demonstrated by how quickly Hollywood adapted his novels to the screen with such famous actors as William Powell. But in the 1930s Hammett and Chandler started the hard-boiled genre with violent detectives who would make Van Dine’s intellectual sleuth seem insignificant and a bit preposterous.
S.S. van Dine was enormously popular between 1926 and 1936, something which is also demonstrated by how quickly Hollywood adapted his novels to the screen with such famous actors as William Powell. But in the 1930s Hammett and Chandler started the hard-boiled genre with violent detectives who would make Van Dine’s intellectual sleuth seem insignificant and a bit preposterous.
August 3, 2026
Why is it that 9 books later, when Vance has finally found a counterpart as insane as he, does he AUDACIOUSLY think that he could sacrifice those sentiments for the sake of “responsibility”? I don’t know about you, sir, but that woman would’ve been ECSTATIC to toddle along with you on your intellectual pursuits. I’m fuming over this harrowing situation here as though I’d been reading a Victorian romance instead of a murder mystery, but I’ve genuinely been troubled by my poor sleuth’s melting, puppy eyes. I would riot all night for this—it would’ve worked out phenomenally.
But anyway, lovers’ tiffs aside, I did solve the mystery, and I’m still forlorn. Might have shed a desolate tear or two, don’t y’know?
Ps: Zalia Graem calling off Vance for being stingy with his ‘e’s just further along solidifies why this ship should have sailed. And her saying that this Nash individual who rather poetically stressed that Philo Vance deserves a kick in the pance was correct… I would’ve personally asked the woman out on the spot just then. Sad. Sad.
Really nice book, by the by.
But anyway, lovers’ tiffs aside, I did solve the mystery, and I’m still forlorn. Might have shed a desolate tear or two, don’t y’know?
Ps: Zalia Graem calling off Vance for being stingy with his ‘e’s just further along solidifies why this ship should have sailed. And her saying that this Nash individual who rather poetically stressed that Philo Vance deserves a kick in the pance was correct… I would’ve personally asked the woman out on the spot just then. Sad. Sad.
Really nice book, by the by.
July 14, 2026
Voto complessivo: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Trama: 👍👍👍👍
Personaggi: 👦👦👦👦
Page turner: 📖📖📖📖
Suspense: 😱😱😱
Plot twist: 💡💡💡
Nona avventura per Philo Vance, il colto e elegante detective "dilettante" creato dalla penna di S.S. Van Dine e che lo ha reso il più prominente giallista statunitense del XX secolo.
Non ai livelli de L'enigma dell'alfiere, La strana morte del signor Benson o La Canarina Assassinata, ma estremamente godibile grazie al fascino di Vance, e stavolta c'è persino spazio per un pizzico di romanticismo. Si intuisce il colpevole? Sì, e anche abbastanza presto, anche se Van Dine cerca di buttare polvere negli occhi, ma questo non inficia il piacere della lettura.
Per gli amanti del giallo classico.
June 12, 2026
And they’re off to the races.
Philo Vance gets a strange call from an unidentified source about some suspicious goings on at the Gardner penthouse.
There is a tension between family members and friends. All comes to a head at the end of a horse racing broadcast. A gunshot is heard upstairs after the race. Suicide or murder?
Philo Vance had been one of the attendees to this Manhattan house party, and he takes it upon himself to investigate. The strange message has piqued his interest.
Money, favouritism, family relationships, greed and more make up this mystery from the “Golden Age” of mystery stories.
Philo Vance gets a strange call from an unidentified source about some suspicious goings on at the Gardner penthouse.
There is a tension between family members and friends. All comes to a head at the end of a horse racing broadcast. A gunshot is heard upstairs after the race. Suicide or murder?
Philo Vance had been one of the attendees to this Manhattan house party, and he takes it upon himself to investigate. The strange message has piqued his interest.
Money, favouritism, family relationships, greed and more make up this mystery from the “Golden Age” of mystery stories.
August 21, 2026
Everything I want in a mystery and none of the excess baggage. Put aside the violence, gore, romance, nature scenes. Enter a limited number of characters, a preponderance of clues clearly set out including floor plans of the scene. A murder or two to solve and a detective who is more than a bit of a character. All neatly tied up in the last few pages. Sadly I only have one more of his to read.
September 21, 2021
Solid and fun, if rather generic, 30's pulp murder mystery. Amusing footnotes referring to perhaps-fictional events and facts of the day, that do not turn out to have anything at all to do with the plot.
June 8, 2026
A bet do cavalinho é o menor dos crimes, mas o sumiço das notas de rodapé não é o menor mistério do livro. É divertido, na tradição do romance policial inglês, e devo me lembrar do herói por muito tempo e, claro, seu cronista, que achei histérico como o narrador invisível e mudo.
September 9, 2019
Muy buena novela policíaca. Con misterio y todo lo que hace falta.
January 30, 2020
Como en otras historias de Philo Vance, un buen desarrollo, interesante misterio y final algo previsible
August 29, 2021
Bel giallo classico di Van Dine, scorrevole da leggere e appassionante fino all'ultimo, seppur con un caso apparentemente semplice.
December 27, 2023
Ancora Philo Vance e le sue intuizioni. Smascherare il colpevole è facile, trovare le prove per farlo condannare molto più difficile.
January 8, 2026
Philo Vance is one of the guests at the Garden's home. While listening to a horse race one of the guests dies. At first it is presumed to be a suicide but Vance determines that it is murder. And so investigates.
An entertaining historical mystery
An entertaining historical mystery
February 10, 2016
9th in the Philo Vance mystery series set during April 13 - 15, 1935. Vance, an independently wealthy college educated, amateur detective, uses his deductive skills and psychological knowledge to help his New York City District Attorney friend to unravel the murder and suspicious events in a penthouse. An anonymous phone call warning sends Vance to the penthouse to deal with a possible deadly situation which is a murder and other suspicious events connected with the rooftop garden of the Garden's New York penthouse, where a group friends gather to listen to the result of horse races. .As usual, the action is set in New York City. Vance’s methods are unconventional and go against the more rigid police investigative methods and lawyer legal requirements.
March 21, 2021
Published in 1935, and the ninth in the Philo Vance series.
In this story, our dashing hero, Philo Vance investigates a series of murders, beginning with the questionable suicide of a jockey. While the storyline moves at an even pace, it is a bit slow, yet still interesting enough to follow to the end.
This book was made into the 1936 movie with the same name, starring Edmund Lowe and Virginia Bruce. (I liked her evening gown in this picture.)
💥 Recommended.
In this story, our dashing hero, Philo Vance investigates a series of murders, beginning with the questionable suicide of a jockey. While the storyline moves at an even pace, it is a bit slow, yet still interesting enough to follow to the end.
This book was made into the 1936 movie with the same name, starring Edmund Lowe and Virginia Bruce. (I liked her evening gown in this picture.)
💥 Recommended.
December 26, 2011
interesting.
January 8, 2013
Mannered, affected, not particularly well plotted and over-written.
Read
April 7, 2013Quite interesting.. i don't know why they pan the later ones of the series
December 19, 2015
A locked room mystery. Philo Vance is a bit less obnoxious than usual. Boy do these people drink a lot.
May 2, 2016
read some time in 1993
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews