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I like the early Philo Vance mysteries by SS Van Dine, but they almost decline in quality by a step with each successive book, although not quite. The Casino Murder Mystery isn't exactly an exception in quality of plot, but it's memorable for another reason: a significant plot use of heavy water (deuterium oxide, 2H2O or D2O), "a form of water [with] a high concentration of the hydrogen isotope deuterium". It's a substance of scientific interest for its applications which Wikipedia informs me are Nuclear magnetic resonance, Organic chemistry, Infrared spectroscopy, Neutron moderat[ion], Neutrino detect[ion], Metabolic rate testing in physiology and biology, and Tritium production. This is pretty neat already, but it's of extra interest because it had just been discovered when the book was written. The actual use that the plot makes of it isn't the greatest, but it still makes for a fun read.
Apart from that, there's
ETA: I completely LOVE when characters "murmur" their witty or pithy comebacks.
Additional ( fave quotes )
These quotes highlight what I ponder every time I reread one of these: my strong impression that Vance's manner is very much based on Lord Peter Wimsey. (I'd say he's an American Peter Wimsey with a dash more Sherlock Holmes in him, a full ladle of gay implications including a literal green carnation at one point, and a more intense, even fannish devotion to art and antiquity collection.)
Van Dine (a nom de plume of avant garde art critic Willard Huntington Wright) was a contemporary of Dorothy Sayers, but Vance was introduced 3 years after Wimsey. At the time, they would have been aware of each other, as they were active in the same rather limited fandom circle, so it's fair to imagine the authors in conversation with each others' ideas and use of tropes, as opposed to Vance being simply a later inspired-by work (as eg the remainder of the 'Regency genre' to Heyer). Still, Wimsey appeared in 1923 and Vance in 1926, and while both represent a Type which was fashionable in pop culture of the era, I think there's no doubt that Vance was initially inspired to a good degree by Wimsey.
Apart from that, there's
"You'd be amazed to know how far I am from being surprised," Vance murmured.
ETA: I completely LOVE when characters "murmur" their witty or pithy comebacks.
Additional ( fave quotes )
These quotes highlight what I ponder every time I reread one of these: my strong impression that Vance's manner is very much based on Lord Peter Wimsey. (I'd say he's an American Peter Wimsey with a dash more Sherlock Holmes in him, a full ladle of gay implications including a literal green carnation at one point, and a more intense, even fannish devotion to art and antiquity collection.)
Van Dine (a nom de plume of avant garde art critic Willard Huntington Wright) was a contemporary of Dorothy Sayers, but Vance was introduced 3 years after Wimsey. At the time, they would have been aware of each other, as they were active in the same rather limited fandom circle, so it's fair to imagine the authors in conversation with each others' ideas and use of tropes, as opposed to Vance being simply a later inspired-by work (as eg the remainder of the 'Regency genre' to Heyer). Still, Wimsey appeared in 1923 and Vance in 1926, and while both represent a Type which was fashionable in pop culture of the era, I think there's no doubt that Vance was initially inspired to a good degree by Wimsey.
