A nice crime novel, but nothing special. A guy is killed in Prof. Garden's garden. It seems suicide but Philo Vance is present and he knows better. He calls the police and investigates.
What surprised me more was how the police obeyed him... a dilettante working with DA Markham and Sergeant Heath and both them and the other policemen involved do everything Vance tells them to . Vance interrogates people and decides what to do. The police doesn't do a thing!
Vance's partner/friend Van Dine has basically no role at all. He's there to witness the story so he'll be able to write about how brilliant Vance is. Nothing more. Vance doesn't talk to him about his ideas, doesn't ask him for his opinion. Vance seems rather posh in the way he speaks, but he has no problem speaking his mind when someone is interfering.
This case was not too difficult, it was rather clear that he was suspecting a certain person. Ok, now to the story.
Professor Garden's son Floyd likes to bet on horses. He does so at home with a bunch of friends. Vance and Van Dine are there too, although nobody bothers to talk to Van Dine or ask him if he wants to bet.
Other guests are : ill-tempered cousin Woode Swift, middle-aged Lowe Hammle, Cecil Kroon with moustaches, Madge Weatherby, very showy with all her make-up, and Zalia Graem, lively and pretty.
When they all hear a shot they find Swift dead; he had just lost all his money on one single bet and everybody thought he had killed himself because of it, but Vance doesn't believe it's suicide and starts the investigation.
Spoilers.
Well, he takes the lead, and the others are there only to watch and assist him. Miss Beeton, Mrs Garden's nurse, is also in the house, placing a little bet with Vance's help, and appears to be of help during his investigation, when of course he treats all the people present as suspects, but who could not notice when Vance sent her to check that the key to a little room upstairs was at its usual place? She came down saying it was there, hanging from a nail as usual... it was clear he wanted to check if she knew about it. He treated her as if he suspected everyone but her, as if he trusted her , which clearly meant that he DID suspect her. The final trap was a bit naif: alone with her, he accused her to induce her to try to kill him, having instructed the police photographer to take a good picture when she pushed him off to his death. Everything went according to his plan, and once she was unmasked in front of everyone she ran to throw herself off the roof. Nothing too thrilling, in my opinion. It was presented in the first pages as Vance's most brilliant case, but I hope it wasn't. This is the first I read, and I hope the others are a bit better, in case I'll ever read them.
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