The Greene Murder Case is a 1928 mystery novel by S. S. Van Dine

S. S. Van Dine

S. S. Van Dine was the pseudonym of Willard Huntington Wright , a U.S art critic and author. He created the once immensely popular fictional detective Philo Vance, who first appeared in books in the 1920s, then in movies and on the radio.-Early life and career:Willard Huntington Wright was born...

. It focuses on the murders one by one, of the Greene family: "The holocaust that consumed the Greene family", as detective Philo Vance

Philo Vance

Philo Vance featured in 12 crime novels written by S. S. Van Dine , published in the 1920s and 1930s. During that time, Vance was immensely popular in books, movies, and on the radio. He was portrayed as a stylish, even foppish dandy, a New York bon vivant possessing a highly intellectual bent...

  memorably puts it. This is the third in the series of Philo Vance whodunnits.

Plot synopsis

Philo Vance takes a hand when, in an evening, one daughter of the Greene family is shot to death and another one is wounded. The family comprises two sons and three daughters (the youngest, Ada, is adopted) under the rule of their mother, a bedridden invalid who spends her days feeling sorry for herself and cursing her ungrateful children. The family is required to live in the Greene mansion under the terms of their father's will. The German cook seems strangely attached to the adopted daughter, and other hangers-on include the mother's physician, who is courting Sibella Greene, and the enigmatic butler. Later, the two Greene brothers and the mother are killed and the only family left are the two surviving daughters, jaunty modern Sibella and shy Ada, against whom two murder attempts have been made. The murders are complicated by sets of mysterious footprints appearing in the snow which seem to have been made in an impossible way and by the suggestion that the paralyzed mother has been seen walking in the halls. Philo Vance reduces the facts of the case to just under a hundred paragraphs, sets them in order, and solves the case.

Literary significance and criticism

The Greene Murder Case became the number four bestseller in the US during its first year of publication. "An overblown and overfootnoted tale recording the exploits of Philo Vance. He solves a series of murders in an old New York mansion, ostensibly by tumbling to the fact that the murderer's method was plagiarized from Gross's Handbuch für Untersuchungsrichter, but actually by waiting until the criminal has disposed of most the family."

Film adaptations

The Greene Murder Case (1929) starred William Powell as Philo Vance. Night of Mystery (1937) was based on The Greene Murder Case and starred Grant Richards as Philo Vance. Reportedly, no prints exist outside of university/museum collections.