A review by eudaemonics
The Dragon Murder Case by Willard Huntington Wright, S.S. Van Dine

adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

While I tip my hat to Mr. Van Dine for penning a fun and challenging mystery that proved to be quite an enjoyable puzzle for my first Philo Vance mystery, I do deduct some points for finding his detective the titular Philo Vance obnoxious and rather insufferable. While detectives in fiction are pretty well-known for these traits, I simply thought that Vance's portrayal was too grating for me to sit through much of the time. It was hard to tell when Vance was his own character and when Vance was acting as a mouthpiece for Van Dine-- I mean, Willard H. Wright's interest in fish and aquariums in this novel. I found him so aggravating to read that it really knocked my review down .25 points.

That said, if you can get past Vance's demeanor or heaven forbid you somehow find him tolerable, the mystery itself and the setup was very intriguing and it's refreshing to see a Golden Age mystery set somewhere besides the UK. I also managed to work out the who and why, but not the how before the end of the book, so it was a very fairplay mystery if you're looking for something to sink your teeth into.
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