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9 h 36 min in 26 tracks, published on Spotify on 8 September 2026. A free sample plays on the listing; the full audiobook is sold through Spotify.
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Golden Age detective novel · 1929 · Philo Vance #4
The Bishop Murder Case
Cock Robin dies with an arrow through his heart, and a killer signing himself THE BISHOP turns nursery rhymes into a deadly game.
- Running time
- 9 h 36 min
- Chapters
- 26 tracks
- On Spotify since
- 8 September 2026
- Narration
- Digital voice · full cast
About the story
What happens
A man lies dead on a private archery range in West 75th Street, a hunting arrow through his heart. His name is Joseph Cochrane Robin—Cock Robin—and the man last seen with him is Sperling, German for sparrow. A typed note is already in the letter-box, signed THE BISHOP.
Philo Vance sees the joke before anyone will admit it is one. A university senior named Sprigg is shot through the head with a little gun. A hunchback the neighborhood children call Humpty Dumpty is found broken at the foot of a park wall. The trail leads into a household of physicists and chess players, where a mind accustomed to light-years and electrons may have stopped counting human lives at all. The nursery-rhyme killer of crime fiction begins here.
Where to listen
Editions of The Bishop Murder Case
YouTube · Read-along edition
Full text on screen, with the spoken line highlighted as you listen. 9 h 35 min, free to watch.
Keep listening
More by S. S. Van Dine
Golden Age detective novel
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The Benson Murder Case
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9 h 5 min · Philo Vance #1
A Wall Street broker is shot in his own armchair, and Philo Vance insists that evidence proves nothing and temperament everything. His first case.
Golden Age detective novel
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The Canary Murder Case
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A Broadway star is strangled behind a bolted door that nobody used. Philo Vance asks for a card table instead of the fingerprints.
Golden Age detective novel
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The Greene Murder Case
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10 h 25 min · Philo Vance #3
Behind a high wall on 53rd Street, a family bound together by a will is shot one by one. The coldest and most rigorously built of Vance's cases.
