Story summary
Streszczenie książki Sprawa morderstwa biskupa
- 8 min czytania
- 10 parts
- Nagranie wkrótce
An archer named Robin lies dead with an arrow in his body, and an old nursery rhyme starts coming true in New York.
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Sprawa morderstwa biskupa — najważniejsze informacje
Streszczenie: 8 min czytania
- Czas czytania
- Około 5 h 45 min4 h 35 min fast, 6 h 55 min slow
- Długość
- Liczba słów: 82 600
- Poziom trudności w bibliotece
- Średni longer sentences, everyday words
- Pierwsze wydanie
- 1929by S. S. Van Dine
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Ile czasu zajmuje przeczytanie klasyków · Zaktualizowano
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Sprawa morderstwa biskupa in short
The Bishop Murder Case is a chain of killings in which each death imitates a nursery rhyme. It begins with Cock Robin and an arrow, moves to Johnny Sprig and a bullet, and reaches Humpty Dumpty and a wall. Each time a typed note signed THE BISHOP explains the joke to the press.
What Sprawa morderstwa biskupa is about
Who killed Cock Robin? It is a rhyme every child knows, and in this novel it becomes a murder plan. On a warm April morning in New York, a champion archer named Joseph Cochrane Robin is found dead behind a professor's house, an arrow through his heart. The last man seen with him is Raymond Sperling, and Sperling is the German word for sparrow.
S. S. Van Dine wrote The Bishop Murder Case as the fourth of his Philo Vance mysteries. Vance is a wealthy, learned amateur who helps District Attorney John Markham, and typed notes signed THE BISHOP accompany the nursery-rhyme murders. You get a household of brilliant, odd people and a detective who trusts reason.
Dla kogo. You will enjoy this book if you like puzzles with clues in plain view, a brilliant amateur detective, and a New York of clubs and chess. It suits readers who love nursery rhymes turned sinister.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A dead archer and a nursery rhyme
The case opens on a warm Saturday in April. Philo Vance is at breakfast on his roof garden when Markham telephones. A man named Robin has been found dead on a private archery range behind Professor Bertrand Dillard's home, an arrow through his heart. Before Markham arrives, Vance asks for a book on archery, a German dictionary and a volume of children's verse.
His reasoning is quick and strange. The dead man is Joseph Cochrane Robin, so he is literally Cock Robin. The last person seen with him is Sperling, and the dictionary says Sperling means sparrow. Vance recites the old rhyme in which a sparrow kills Cock Robin with a bow and arrow.
At the house the scene looks staged. The dead man's legs are bent and his arms are spread, which is not how a shot man falls. The arrow's notch is broken, and the doctor finds a cracked skull from a blow to the back of the head. Vance concludes that Robin was killed indoors and carried out. When a crime looks like a performance, ask who the audience is.
- 2Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
A sparrow confesses and the Bishop writes
The Dillard household is small but crowded with talent.
- 3Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
A second death proves the rhyme is a series
Nine days pass without progress.
- 4Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
Everyone in the house knew the dead student
At the Dillard house Mrs. Drukker is waiting in the drawing room.
- 5Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
A chess piece is left at a mother's door
Doctor Barstead, the neurologist who treats the Drukkers, tells Vance about Mrs. Drukker's mind.
- 6Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
A missing key and a chess game
Vance asks where each person was on the night of the midnight visit.
- 7Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
Humpty Dumpty falls and a mother dies
After days of nothing, Sperling asks from his cell to see Markham.
- 8Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
Cold mathematics can breed cold contempt
At dinner in the Stuyvesant Club, Vance explains why he believes a mathematician is behind the crimes.
- 9Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
Childhood becomes the darkest weapon
The rhymes work because everyone knows them.
- 10Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
Vance reads minds while the police read clues
The story is told by Van, Vance's friend and lawyer, who records what he sees.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Philo Vance A wealthy, learned amateur detective who reads minds and habits, and helps the District Attorney track a killer who copies nursery rhymes.
- John F.-X. Markham New York's District Attorney and Vance's old friend, a serious man who wants hard evidence and fights the idea of a rhyme-making killer.
- Sergeant Ernest Heath A blunt, loyal Homicide detective who trusts fingerprints and alibis, and slowly learns to respect Vance's strange methods.
- Professor Bertrand Dillard A famous physicist who hosts the household where the first death occurs and secretly plans to destroy his adopted son.
- Belle Dillard The professor's athletic niece, an archery club leader who is courted by two men and wants to protect everyone she cares for.
- Sigurd Arnesson The professor's adopted son and a gifted mathematician, who jokes about everything and offers to solve the crime with equations.
- Adolph Drukker A brilliant, hunchbacked neighbor who writes on relativity, loves children's games, and hides what he knows about the morning of the first death.
- John Pardee A quiet, graying chess player whose famous opening was wrecked by the masters, and who lives across the street from the Dillards.
How it ends (spoiler)
The Bishop is Professor Dillard. Jealous of Arnesson and losing his scientific edge, he planned the rhyme murders to destroy his adopted son. He also killed Pardee and staged a suicide. Vance finds the kidnapped child Madeleine Moffat alive, and at a final meeting he secretly swaps the wine glasses after seeing the professor poison Arnesson's glass. Dillard dies of his own poison. Arnesson and Belle marry and move to Norway, where Arnesson wins the Nobel Prize.
The whole book is coming to your plan
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Pytania o Sprawa morderstwa biskupa
Why is Sperling important in the first rhyme?
Sperling is the German word for sparrow, and in the Cock Robin rhyme the sparrow kills Robin with a bow and arrow. The killer uses that match to make a young archer look guilty.
Is The Bishop Murder Case a true story?
No, it is a work of fiction, written in the 1920s by S. S. Van Dine. It is the fourth Philo Vance novel, set in a New York that feels detailed and real.
Is it easy to follow if I have not read other Philo Vance books?
Yes, it stands alone. Each chapter gives a date and time, Van explains the people clearly, and the clues are laid out in plain view, so a new reader can follow every step.
What is the main message of the book?
The book suggests that cold reason without human feeling can become dangerous, and that character and psychology can reveal what physical evidence hides. It also shows how familiar childhood things can be twisted into fear.
Zacytuj to wydanie
Van Dine, S. S. The Bishop Murder Case. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-bishop-murder-case.
Van Dine, S. S. (2026). The bishop murder case. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-bishop-murder-case (Original work published 1929)
Van Dine, S. S. The Bishop Murder Case. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-bishop-murder-case.
@book{vandine2026bishop,
author = {Van Dine, S. S.},
title = {The Bishop Murder Case},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-bishop-murder-case},
note = {First published 1929}
}
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