Philo Vance is a stylish, even foppish dandy, a New York dilettante and bon vivant possessing a highly intellectual bent he likes to use for solving some quite complicated crimes. His methods are unusual and often in contradiction to the firm police rules and official requirements, but his wit always gets him a step further. Philo Vance novels were chronicled by his friend Van Dine, who appears as a kind of Dr. Watson figure in the books. Table of Contents: Introduction Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories The Philo Vance Series The Benson Murder Case The Canary Murder Case The Greene Murder Case The Bishop Murder Case The Scarab Murder Case The Kennel Murder Case The Dragon Murder Case The Casino Murder Case The Garden Murder Case The Kidnap Murder Case The Gracie Allen Murder Case The Winter Murder Case S. S. Van Dine is the pseudonym used by American art critic Willard Huntington Wright when he wrote detective novels. He was an important figure in avant-garde cultural circles in pre-WWI New York, and under the pseudonym he created the immensely popular fictional detective Philo Vance.