The Greene Murder Case — S.S. Van Dine

Death stalks the halls of a New York City mansion in this celebrated Philo Vance mystery.

A dark cloud has descended upon the elegant mansion of Jazz Age New York's illustrious Greene family as, one by one, the heirs to the fortune die off under mysterious circumstances. It begins when an intruder shoots two daughters, leaving one dead. Soon after, another heir is shot dead in similar circumstances. Do the footprints in the snow belong to the killer, or were they left as a red herring? And will the authorities on the case find the answer before more family members die off?


Philo Vance, monocled New York bon vivant and part-time supersleuth, is on the case, but it will take all of his deductive powers and cultural knowledge to reveal the culprit. Along the way, he -- and the reader -- will consult detailed floor plans, fairly-clued testimonies, and the obscure yet illuminating texts discovered in the Greene home's secret criminology library. All of the evidence in the case is present in the text, but only the most astute armchair sleuths will be able to solve the crime before Vance delivers his brilliant solution.


S. S. Van Dine's Vance novels were a crime fiction sensation. Major bestsellers in their time, the books went on to shape generations of mystery writers working in their shadow. The Greene Murder Case is the third chronicle in the saga of the iconic detective and remains to this day one of the most celebrated entries in the series.