The Casino Murder Case

The Casino Murder Case is a 1934 novel written by S. S. Van Dine in the series about fictional detective Philo Vance.

In this outing, a murder investigation is connected with a private casino on New York's Upper West Side, and the wealthy and unorthodox family that operates it.

Vance attends, and witnesses the collapse of the son and heir to the family fortune, a heavy gambler, due to his having been poisoned—immediately after he drinks a glass of water from the casino manager's private decanter.

Vance must determine the method by which the poison was administered, and, at the same time, follows a trail that leads to one of the character's research into the production of deuterium, or "heavy water", which had just been discovered in 1934.

The Casino Murder Case (1935) starred Paul Lukas as Philo Vance, and was a fairly faithful reproduction of the principal details of the novel.