The Benson Murder Case is the first novel in the Philo Vance mystery murder series by S.S. Van Dine which became an instant best-seller. Considered a roman à clef, the novel was very loosely based upon a real-life case that had made headlines: the unsolved 1920 murder of bridge expert Joseph Bowne Elwell, where the circumstances under which Elwell’s body was found are duplicated in the novel.

In The Benson Murder Case, Philo Vance is the New York dilettante who decides to assist the police in investigating the death of another man-about-town because he finds the psychological aspects of the crime of interest, and feels that they would be beyond the capacities of the police, even those of his friend District Attorney Markham. He spots the murderer right away but allows Markham and the police to fix the guilt on five successive persons by circumstantial evidence. Vance manages to pierce the murderer’s alibi for the time of the murder and force a confession.

S.S. Van Dine, pen name for William Huntington Wright (1888-1939), was an art critic and literary editor for the Los Angeles Times and the New York City literary magazine The Smart Set, known for his scathing book reviews and irreverent opinions. He wrote twelve Philo Vance mysteries, many appearing as movies and on radio. His style of detective murder mystery went out of favor in the 1930’s when “hard-boiled” detective books entered the scene and rose to popularity during the Depression. However, Van Dine’s Philo Vance was found to be the favorite detective read of POW officers during WWII.

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