TODAY'S story is a pastiche (usually distinguishable from a parody but also, on some occasions, combined with it), one of three that appeared in EQMM centering on S. S. Van Dine's sleuth Philo Vance, written by one of those rare individuals who have a talent not just for imitation but also innovation, Jon L. Breen:
(1) "The Austin Murder Case," (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, December 1967
(2) "The Vanity Murder Case," (nv) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, July 1970
(3) "The Circle Murder Case," (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, October 1972 (below).
"The Circle Murder Case."
Philo Vance Pastiche No. 3.
First appearance: EQMM, October 1972.
Reprinted in Hair of the Sleuthhound (1982; online HERE; borrow only).
Short story (14 pages).
Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 115).
(Note: Text is very faded but readable.)
"It's the psychology of the murdered man that intrigues me. And of the murderer."
For Philo Vance, commonplace policework doesn't merit his full attention. Instead of the "how" it's the "why" that's more important. So when a wealthy man (who, paradoxically, deals in horseracing without actually participating in it) is murdered and a hefty number of possible suspects present themselves for examination, Vance is confronted early on with what the victim has done; namely, he has "provided us with the world's most unhelpful dyin' message." Deciphering such a clue is all in a day's work for Ellery Queen (the detective), but how about for the man who re-translates Menander for relaxation? Need we ask?
Principal characters:
On the side of justice:
. . . Van (the narrator), Philo Vance, John F.-X. Markham, and Ernest Heath.
Circling around in the suspect pool:
. . . Phineas Circle, Frances Circle, Samuel Circle, Arnold Cramer, Gifford White, Henry Gilfoyle, and Tree.
References and resources:
- "re-translatin' Menander":
"He was one of the most popular writers and most highly admired poets in antiquity, but his work was considered lost before the early Middle Ages. It now survives only in Latin-language adaptations by Terence and Plautus and, in the original Greek, in highly fragmentary form, most of which were discovered on papyrus in Egyptian tombs during the early to mid-20th-century. In the 1950s, to the great excitement of Classicists, it was announced that a single play by Menander, Dyskolos, had finally been rediscovered in the Bodmer Papyri intact enough to be performed." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "his handicapping":
"A handicap race in horse racing is a race in which horses carry different weights, allocated by the handicapper. A better horse will carry a heavier weight, to give it a disadvantage when racing against slower horses. The skill in betting on a handicap race lies in predicting which horse can overcome its handicap." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "a shyster":
"Shyster is a slang word for someone who acts in a disreputable, unethical, or unscrupu-lous way, especially in the practice of law, sometimes also politics or economics."
(Wikipedia HERE.)
- "Dashiell Hammett's famous review":
"The incompetence of the genre’s detectives and the sloppiness of authors’ research continued to earn Hammett’s scorn. When he was reviewing books for the Saturday Review, Hammett excoriated The Benson Murder Case, one of S. S. Van Dine’s novels featuring detective Philo Vance:
'Alvin Benson is found sitting in a wicker chair in his living room, a book still in his hand, his legs crossed, and his body comfortably relaxed in a lifelike position. He is dead. A bullet from an Army model Colt .45 automatic pistol, held some six feet away when the trigger was pulled, has passed completely through his head. That his position should have been so slightly disturbed by the impact of such a bullet at such a range is preposterous, but the phenomenon hasn't anything to do with the plot, so don't, as I did, waste time trying to figure it out. The murderer's identity becomes obvious quite early in the story. The authorities, no matter how stupid the author chose to make them, would have cleared up the mystery promptly if they had been allowed to follow the most rudimentary police routine. But then what would there have been for the gifted Vance to do?'
"Philo Vance, Hammett continued, 'is a bore when he discusses art and philosophy, but when he switches to criminal psychology he is delightful. There is a theory that anyone who talks enough on any subject must, if only by chance, finally say something not altogether incorrect. Vance disproves this theory: he manages always, and usually ridiculously, to be wrong.' Later, when he wrote for the Evening Post, he tried again to get through a Philo Vance novel but found the district attorney and police sergeant 'as incomparably inefficient, as amazingly ignorant of even beat-walking police routine, as ever'."
- The Library of America Story of the Week (HERE).
- "that lame gelding":
"A male horse is often gelded to make him better-behaved and easier to control. Gelding can also remove lower-quality animals from the gene pool. To allow only the finest animals to breed on, while preserving adequate genetic diversity, only a small percentage of all male horses should remain stallions." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "to the glue factory":
"Stereotypically, the animal in question is a horse, and horses that are put down are often said to have been 'sent to the glue factory'. However, other animals are also used, including cattle, rabbits and fish." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "he's dropped from allowance races into claimin' races":
Allowance race: "A race for which entries are restricted to horses meeting certain earnings or other race criteria. The track operator's designated official (usually the Racing Secretary) establishes specific conditions that determine what weights are to be carried by any competing horse based on factors from the horse's previous performances including races won and/or earnings."
Claiming race: "Race in which any competing horse is subject to be purchased for a preset price. A claim is made before the race and can only be acted upon by a licensed owner or their agent. The price is set by the conditions of the race. If the horse wins prize money during the race, the money goes to the previous owner. Prior to 1925 they were called a Selling race." (Wikipedia HERE; also see HERE.)
- Jon L. Breen's initial foray into mystery spoofery came as the 305th "Department of 'First Stories'" publication in the May 1967 EQMM. As Ellery Queen (the editor) says, "The Crowded Hours" is "a bitingly accurate parody-pastiche of Ed McBain and his 87th Precinct police procedurals" (McBain approved, by the way). You can find it at The Luminist Archives (HERE; 8 pages; go to text page 103).
- We encountered Breen's Ellery Queen pastiche "The Lithuanian Eraser Mystery" (HERE) earlier this year.
Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.
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