S. S. Van Dine: The Dragon Murder Case (USA 2020)

From the Publisher:
No question, The Dragon Murder Case showcases Our Philo at his most supremely irritating. The book is set at a mansion in the northern reaches of Manhattan, complete with picturesque pool. Into that pool dives Sanford Montague, never to be seen again. Fools (and as usual, they're thick on the ground) rush to blame the supernatural: They note that the pool is known as "The Dragon Pool," home to a monster known to the Lenape Indians. Philo's not so sure: He is (of course) an expert on both dragons and the Lenape Indians, with a sort of sideline expertise in pools and fish.

It would be tempting to sympathize with Ogden Nash's claim that "Philo Vance needs a kick in the pance." But, as the New York Times noted, "[T]he piscatorial side of this book, at least, is authentic. The author is on the Board of Governors of the Aquarium Society of New York, and has won many prizes with his fish." Philo may be a know-it-all, but apparently he comes by it honestly. By the time you reach the end of Dragon, you will almost certainly want to aim your boot at Vance's posterior, but you will have had a swell time getting there.

"Philo Vance is still an objectionable character. He continues to flaunt his Oxford accent, to lift his eyebrows whimsically, and to speak disagreeably when he tries to be humorous. Yet as always the book presents a good puzzle, and that, according to Mr. Vance and his tens of thousands of readers, is what murder mystery books are for." -- New York Times

S. S. Van Dine: The Dragon Murder Case. Philo Vance #7. Felony & Mayhem, ISBN: 9781631942020 (February, 2020), 264 p., $14.95, eBook $9.99.

S. S. Van Dine: The Dragon Murder Case (USA 1985)

From the Publisher:
One night during a weekend house party at the century-old Stamm estate, Sanford Montague dives into a pool but fails to rise to the surface. When the pool -- known as the Dragon Pool, the legendary home of the Lenape Indians' devil monster -- is drained, the results are blood-chilling. The police are baffled by the bizarre crime until debonaire master sleuth Philo Vance uses his knowledge of mythological lore and his insight into human psychology to puzzle out the equally bizarre solution to this classic mystery of the 1930s.

"S. S. Van Dine is far and away the most skillful deviser of shuddering, mystifying, and plausible tales of murder now thrilling the nation." -- The New York Evening Post

"So Philo Vance will be darting around again. Good!" -- Rex Stout

S. S. Van Dine: The Dragon Murder Case. A Philo Vance Mystery. New York: Scribner's, 1985, ISBN: 0684183803, Scribner Crime Classic, 314 p., $4.45.

S. S. Van Dine: The Dragon Murder Case (USA 1949)

From the Publisher:
TWO MURDERS --
that couldn't have taken place!
There at the bottom of the hole lay the crumpled dead body of Alex Greeff. Across the left side of his head ran a gaping wound, and there were black bruises on his neck. His shirt had been ripped down the front, and there were three long gashes in the flesh, as if a monster's claw had torn him downward from the throat. The moment I looked at him, mutilated in exactly the same manner as Montague, all the wild stories of the dragon of the pool came back to me and froze my blood.

Murder lurks at midnight. A killer lives underwater and whisks his victim away from the scene of the crime right before everyone's eyes. And Philo Vance pits his ice-cold brain against the cunning genius of the creature that could scarcely have been human.

This low-priced Bantam book, complete and unabridged, is made possible by the large sale and effective promotion of the original edition, published by Charles Scribner's Sons.

S. S. Van Dine: The Dragon Murder Case. Death lurked in a moonlit pool. Bantam Books #362 (April, 1949), 245 p., ??cent;.