The Dragon Murder Case

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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.)

[edit] 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.^[1] '

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 ...^[2]

[edit] Film adaptation

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

[edit] External links

• The text of the novel is available from Project Gutenberg, Australia

[edit] References

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