[Chron]

Originally Posted by Kylon99

Oh, that's right. I'm pretty sure I read it upside down... how silly of me. And totally ignored the writing too at that. It must have entered my brain through osmosis.

Dry writing is dry. And biased reply is biased.

If you treat it like cardboard, then of course you're going to find it overly dry and flavorless.

What you gave the story was a cursory glance rather than drinking it in like it deserves. That you dismissed everything as:

Spoiler for Benson Case Spoilers:

... ended up being a parade of characters I can't even remember. Sometimes we don't even get to see the character; we just get a one-two line summary, "And then whoever came down to the DA's office and said exactly what Vance said he would say. Next."

Well, frankly, I can't imagine what else that could mean other than you simply not paying attention to the writing.

Van Dine's style is about much, much more than the puzzle itself, this is especially true with the Benson case. If you just didn't like it, then I wouldn't object to a matter of taste, but to simply dismiss a classic Golden Age story like that as bad, well, then I really have to call foul on your assessment.

The Benson case is a classic for the writing in it, and there's a lot more to that story than just being dry. It deserves more credit than you're giving it.