The Greene Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine

"The house is polluted -- and all of the inmates are rotting with it, disintegrating in spirit and mind and character". This is the opinion which amateur detective Philo Vance held of the occupants of the Greene mansion. District Attorney Markham had asked Philo Vance to assist in  investigating the shooting at the mansion. In the night, someone had entered the bedroom of Julia Greene, and had shot her dead. Then this person had crossed the hall, into the bedroom of her sister Ada Greene and had seriously wounded her with a shot to the back. She was still alive. If this was a burglary, then it failed because nothing was taken.

The other occupants of the house were, indeed, an strange group. The mother of the family, Mrs. Tobias Greene was bed ridden, cranky, and endlessly demanding attention. John Greene, the oldest son was the one who had persuaded Markham to look into the case. The younger son, Rex was a sickly bookish boy who spent most of time in his room with his science experiments. Sibella, the middle daughter, was outspoken and highly resentful of Ada, the youngest daughter, and wished that Ada would leave. Ada, who had been adopted,  seemed to the only one who paid any attention to their mother. They were doomed to stay together in this house due to the terms of their father's will which said that they must remain in the house for 25 years after his death or forfeit receiving any of their inheritance. Visiting frequently was Doctor Von Blom, the family physician, who supposedly was treating Mrs. Tobias Greene, but he seemed to paying a lot of attention to Sibella. Sproot, the butler seemed to very diligent, and Gertrude Manheim, the cook, had been with the family for twenty years. More murders would occur, and the family was being rapidly diminished.

Philo Vance is a very sophisticated and remarkably well educated gentleman, 34 years old. He maintains a very rational outlook while trying to solved the mystery of the deaths in the Greene family. This book, which was published in 1927, is literate and the reader is warned to keep a dictionary handy because there are some unusual words in it. Indeed, this book has footnotes making it a rather academic work. Vance's final method of analysis is so detailed that it puts modern mystery writers to shame.

S. S. Van Dine is the pseudonym of Willard Huntington Wright. Wright was an author of literary articles and an art critic. Confined to bed by an illness, Wright read hundreds of detective stories, wrote an article about detective fiction, and then turned his hand to writing detective fiction. 
  
I