he once practiced law, says he is Vance's chief adviser, especially on financial and legal matters. Van Dine is not like most "sidekicks" in mystery stories. John Loughery, the biographer of Willard Huntington Wright, describes Van Dine as a "noncharacter": While other people in the novels sometimes talk to him or note his presence, he never addresses anyone (or at least does not quote anything he says to them). He also never does anything that would influence events. John F.-X Markham: New York County District Attorney who served only one four-year term. A bachelor, like all of the leading male characters in the stories, he lives in an apartment in lower Manhattan. Markham is a straight-arrow, no-nonsense type whose serious demeanor frequently contrasts, in friendly bantering, with Vance's whimsical persona. Van Dine describes this contrast of personalities: Ernest Heath: Sergeant in the Homicide Bureau of the New York Police Department. He is gruff, lacking in imagination, prone to misuse English grammar, and also a no-nonsense type when it comes to dealing with suspects in the murder cases (he occasionally suggests to Markham that he "work over" some of them to extract confessions). He and Vance, although very different in most ways, gain a mutual respect for each other as they work together. He seems to sleep very little, as he is up all hours working on cases. Dr. Emanuel Doremus: Medical Examiner for New York City. A cocky little man who wears a bowler hat and constantly complains (in a mock manner) about being called to check out corpses just as he has sat down to a meal or is otherwise inconvenienced. Currie: Described in The Benson Murder Case as "a rare old English servant who acted as Vance's butler, valet, major-domo and, on occasions, specialty cook." Other individuals who appear frequently include Francis Swacker, Markham's male secretary, and Guilfoyle, Hennessey, Snitkin, and Burke, all detectives under Heath in the Homicide Bureau. Criticisms of Vance and the novels Vance's character as portrayed in the novels might seem to many modern readers to be supercilious, obnoxiously affected, and highly irritating. He struck some contemporaries that way, as well. At the height of Philo Vance's popularity, comic poet Ogden Nash wrote: Philo Vance Needs a kick in the pance. Famed hardboiled-detective author Raymond Chandler referred to Vance in his essay "The Simple Art of Murder" as "the most asinine character in detective