About the Author

S. S. VAN DINE is the pseudonym used by American art critic Willard Huntington Wright when he wrote detective fiction. He began his writing career as the literary editor of the Los Angeles Times, but also worked for a New York literary magazine. In 1926 he published a seminal essay on the history, traditions, and conventions of detective fiction as an art form and within two years and three mysteries, he was one of the best-selling authors in the United States. His title The Canary Murder Case was made into a film starring William Powell and Louise Brooks.