Klik op een omslag om naar Google Boeken te gaan.
Bezig met laden... The Winter Murder Casedoor S. S. Van Dine
Geen Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
LikeThe Gracie Allen Murder Case before it,Winter was first written as a screenplay, in this case a vehicle for the figure skater Sonja Henie. However, while Allen's scatterbrained persona made a charming foil for Philo's stuffed-shirt pretensions, Ms. Henie provided no such inspiration. Van Dine did not live long enough to see her outed as a Nazi supporter, but her ice-princess act offered less for Philo to play against. It should be noted thatWinter was published posthumously to close out the series, and though it went to press without Van Dine's usual repeated revisions, it is true vintage Philo--utterly distinctive in style and its own very genuine kind of pleasure. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
Actuele discussiesGeenPopulaire omslagen
Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.52Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1900-1944LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
Ben jij dit?Word een LibraryThing Auteur. |
Review of the Arni Books Kindle eBook edition (August 10, 2023) of the Scribner’s hardcover original (1939).
This became the final Philo Vance novel by S.S. Van Dine aka Willard Huntington Wright (1888-1939) who passed away in the year that it was published. The Winter Murder Case was apparently designed as a screen treatment for a planned film to feature Norwegian champion ice skater Sonje Henie, who had a post-Olympics career as a screen actress. The plot therefore involves a woman with a talent for ice skating. It was published as a short length novella with Wright's "Twenty Rules For Writing Detective Stories" added as an addendum to bump up the book length.
See cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b9/TheWinterMurderCase.jpg
The front cover of the original Scribner’s first edition (1939). Image sourced from Wikipedia.
Amateur sleuth Vance is called out to the Berkshires country estate of Carrington Rexon who is concerned that his emerald jewel collection will be burgled. Ella Gunthar is the companion to Rexon's invalid daughter and spends her spare time ice skating on a nearby rink on the estate. As Vance is in residence a murder and the theft of the emeralds occurs. Vance solves the case while relying on Ella's skating as a distraction for the house guests.
This was a very light and short read which didn't allow Philo Vance to do his usual taunting of District Attorney Markham (who is also a guest at the estate) or NYC homicide detective sergeant Heath (who does not appear at all, since the locale is out of his jurisdiction). So it was not as insufferable as some of the other late Vances and it also didn't have the disappointment of an Unsatisfactory Ending Alert.
Trivia and Links
Unlike almost all of the other Philo Vance books and although originally planned as a movie, The Winter Murder Case was not adapted into a film version. There is a listing of all the film adaptations under the Wikipedia entry for the fictional Philo Vance character here. The later films are not based on any of the books.
The Winter Murder Case is in the public domain and can be read or sourced online at various sites such as Faded Page.
Willard Huntington Wright aka S.S. Van Dine is also the author of the Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories. ( )