The Canary Murder Case

A glamorous Broadway singer nicknamed the Canary is found strangled in her locked apartment, and the list of men who called on her the night she died runs from Wall Street money to Broadway hangers-on to the underworld. In this 1927 mystery, the second to feature Philo Vance, the leisured detective sets aside the tidy alibis that convince Markham and the police and works instead to expose the one visitor whose story cannot possibly be true. Van Dine builds the puzzle with care, famously turning a card game into a test of character. Stylish and coolly logical, it was a defining hit of the era. Free to download as a PDF and EPUB edition.