The Gracie Allen Murder Case

By S. S. Van Dine

This early work by S. S. Van Dine was originally published in 1938 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introduction. 'The Gracie Allen Murder Case' is one of Van Dine's novels of crime and mystery. S. S. Van Dine was born Willard Huntington Wright in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1888. He attended St. Vincent College, Pomona College and Harvard University, but failed to graduate, leaving to cultivate contacts he had made in the literary world. At the age of twenty-one, Wright began his professional writing career as literary editor of the Los Angeles Times. In 1926, Wright published his first S. S. Van Dine novel, The Benson Murder Case. Wright went on to write eleven more mysteries. The first few books about his upper-class amateur sleuth, Philo Vance, were so popular that Wright became wealthy for the first time in his life. His later books declined in popularity as the reading public's tastes in mystery fiction changed, but during the late twenties and early thirties his work was very successful.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Jan 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473379770

S. S. Van Dine

S. S. Van Dine was the pseudonym of Willard Huntington Wright (1888 - 1939), a US art critic and prolific author. After a long illness, he started writing detective fiction under a pseudonym, creating the wildly popular detective Philo Vance whose obscure cultural references and knowledge of aesthetic arts helped him solve many complicated puzzle plots.

Reviews for The Gracie Allen Murder Case

[carterchristian1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The last mystery written by an initially popular mystery writer, some reviewers do not praise as highly as his other work. All of the standard "fun" stuff is still here....wonderful expensive buildings, cafes, stylish women. It is unique in including the real celebrity figures, George and Gracie.

[bjace_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Not only is Philo Vance the most irritating of the Golden Age detectives, but the use of George Burns and Gracie Allen in this one adds no interest whatsoever.