little that’s reasonable

[cimorene]

“Ah, but there’s little that’s reasonable in this fantastic and ironical world, Sergeant,” remarked Vance.

-SS Van Dine, The Scarab Murder Case

Comments

[mrkinch]

Oh, gosh, I used to adore SS Van Dine! Like, at jr high age or less, even, and I'd completely forgotten about them. Must see if I enjoy them now. Thanks!

[cimorene]

Oh, well, as for that... I like him, but I wouldn't get your hopes up too high! They're fun, but not quite as there-there as bigger Golden Age names.

I would definitely recommend The Benson Murder Case, though. It's the best by a fair margin.

And I really like The Scarab Murder Case - it isn't the next best or anything, I just found the premise and the twists original and memorable.

[cimorene]

I really thought I had written some more reviewy stuff about some of them but... I think that only happened in my head. However, I did write this post about them, which talks a little more about their... level of interestingness to me vs perceived writing quality:

cimorene posted: S.S. Van Dine's Philo Vance, queerness, and his homosocial squad... would be better female (duh)

I was surprised to learn that these stories, written pseudonymously by literary critic and NYC cultural avant-garde elite W.H. Wright, were all bestsellers at the time of publication, but have since faded so far from modern cultural awareness that I'd never heard of them in spite of having been close to several big-time golden age detective fiction fans. (If you read them, you'd probably also begin to feel you understand why they haven't stood the test of time as well as ACD, Christie, and Sayers, but I haven't quite applied myself to articulating my speculation yet.)

[mrkinch]

Scarab is the one we owned, I think, but if I pick it up again I'll try not to expect too much. Slight is fine, sometimes.

[cimorene]

Depending what you're looking for, Greene and Canary are fairly classic mysteries, Bishop has a cool premise and setup that gets lost in the middle/end (in my view that is)...

... and Dragon is HILARIOUSLY silly crack. Maybe the most memorable concept I've encountered in the Golden Age genre and I almost want to see it filmed just for some of the window dressing. I've spent a fair amount of time racking my brain for other detective fiction related to/inspired by/inspiring it, but I haven't even really come up with anything yet.