Customer Reviews

Trent's Last Case (Dover Classic Mysteries)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a wonderful story -- I highly recommend it. HOWEVER, beware of the edition published by Kessinger. It is apparently an unedited, unproofread and minimally (if at all) formatted direct printout of the open source copy available on Gutenberg.org. (This was verified by comparing the typos in the two versions. They're identical.) It appears that what this outfit does is downloads/copies/cuts-and-pastes the text file, converts it to a proportional font, and prints it as is. Superficially, the result looks respectable enough, until you start to read the thing. First, there's the book's odd format -- 7 1/2 x 9 1/4 inches -- about the size and shape of, say, your child's math workbook. It's awkward to handle and the simple mechanics of reading becomes an unpleasant chore. The text is properly single spaced, however there's a double space between each paragraph. This brings the eye up short and makes your brain involuntarily expect some sort of climax.

At the end of each PARAGRAPH, mind you.

Imagine a page or two of dialogue.

Talk about interrupting...

...the flow.

In short, this is a very annoying publication, made more so by the fact that there's nothing on the Amazon page or the publisher's web site to indicate the nature of this product. It goes a long way toward spoiling what should be the unalloyed pleasure of this terrific classic mystery. Buy a good used copy instead.

This is a wonderful, old-fashioned book, where the language is complex and clever, and honorable people recognize other people of honor at a glance. The plausible (and implausible) explanations of the mystery are intriguing. It's a lot of fun!

A stupendous mystery; one of the best I have ever read. Fans of Christie or Chesterton will thoroughly enjoy it. To say more might give something away, so I will not.

Scholars consider it the first modern mystery novel. Agatha Christie called it "one of the three best detective stories ever written;" G.K. Chesterton went further, calling it "the finest detective story of modern times." The ever-erudite Dorothy Sayers flatly stated that every mystery novelist owed something to "its liberating and inspiring influence." Today, however, the vast majority of the reading public has never even heard of it.

The novel, of course, is E.C. Bentley's TRENT'S LAST CASE. By most accounts, Bentley wrote the book on a dare--much as Agatha Christie would later write THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES. When financier Sigsbee Manderson is found murdered at his country home, a London newspaper dispatches part-time artist, part-time journalist Trent to the scene. Within three days Trent cracks the case... or so he thinks. But is his solution correct? Or will it result in a terrible miscarriage of justice?

From a 2005 standpoint, TRENT'S LAST CASE is not a remarkable novel. Published in 1913, it feels overwritten, wordy, more Victorian in style than modern--and while the plot itself is interesting, it hardly compares to the unexpected twists offered by the very writers who so praised it and who were so influenced by it. But the fact remains that it was the first: Poe may have created the detective story and such writers as Doyle, Collins, and Dickens may have wrung romantic changes upon the theme, but it really wasn't until TRENT'S LAST CASE that the mystery novel as we presently think of it was born.

Most contemporary readers will likely find Bentley's style tough going, and although extremely influential the triple-twist plot has been done with considerably more drama in later novels. But say what you like, TRENT'S LAST CASE really is "the first," and that counts for a lot. Worth reading for the history of it!

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Actually Trent's last case is his first - and his last: E. C. Bentley didn't write another full-length novel (although there is a disappointing collection of short-stories entitled 'Trent Intervenes', I think; the only edition of this I have seen was in the green and white Penguin crime classics). The importance of 'Trent's Last Case' is that it helped to shape a new paradigm in British detective stories: witty, social acute, conservative (to the point of looking down on 'trade'), and flippant bordering on frivolous. We have Bentley to thank for Allingham, Christie, Crispin, Hare, Innes, and Sayers; the alternative could have been more tedious imitators of the Great Detective, Sherlock Holmes.

E. C. Bentley (July 10, 1875 - March 30, 1956), was a popular English novelist and humorist of the early twentieth century, and the inventor of the clerihew, an irregular form of humorous verse on biographical topics.

Born in London, Bentley worked as a journalist on several newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph. His first published collection of poetry, titled Biography for Beginners (1905), popularized the clerihew form; it was followed by two other collections, in 1929 and 1939. His detective novel, Trent's Last Case (1913), was much praised, numbering Dorothy L. Sayers among its admirers, and with its labyrinthine and mystifying plotting can be seen as the first truly modern mystery. The success of the work inspired him, after only 23 years, to write a sequel, Trent's Own Case (1936).

All lovers of the genre of mystery will enjoy his work immensely.

Trent makes a lasting impression in this, his first, last and only appearance. Appearing in 1913, "Trent's Last Case" is among the first classic English country murder mysteries. It's all butlers, country houses, motor-cars and dressing for dinner, sprinkled with wry observations on the manners of the wealthy, country folk, inn keepers, servants upstairs and downstairs, police inspectors, husbands, widows, American secretaries and French maids.

We begin with our man Trent arriving in town to investigate a murder. The plot is brisk, without enough clues to make it a whodunit. Trent's an established painter with a national reputation as an amateur detective and newspaper correspondent. An amateur sleuth would be incomplete without a nemesis, so we have a long-time friendly rival, Inspector Murth. The presumption of a long history and the effortlessness of the characters' interactions was drawn beautifully. All is revealed through what the characters say and do, not by long narrative descriptions. I rather wish this was only the beginning for Trent and not the end.

What mystery writer today would use that as a title for their first mystery? It seems like so many titles now are intended to begin multi-book series that the "last" part seems strange. Why is it his last case? Does the detective die? You start this book with a question already.

Trent is an artist who's amazing mind has led him to dabble in solving criminal cases for a newspaper. He's called in to consult on the case of the murder of Sigbee Manderson, an American business tycoon. Trent also happens to know the widow's uncle, Mr. Cupples, who also asks Trent to see what he can discover. Mr. Cupples knows that his niece and her husband had a falling out and knows she will be suspected but he feels his niece is innocent and wants Trent to find the proof.

Trent is brilliant, working out what he feels is the solution but also falling in love with the widow! Later, he discovers much of his careful logic to be wrong.

I delighted in this short little book. Trent is a great character, a detective that laughs and loves and has human failings.

I bought this book becauae 1. I enjoy detective novels and 2. Becauae it was mentioned in a recent book entitled 'Bad Twin' "written" by a passenger on the doomed Oceanic flight 815.

If you're looking for a good yarn check this out. It's a fast read and it's fairly inexpensive. If you're looking for a LOST tie-in it's not here.

The novelty of this story is that the case is solved before the book is two-thirds of the way through. I won't go on and spoil it but anyone who likes to solve mysteries or figure out the twist in stories should enjoy this one.

Actually Trent's last case is his first - and his last: E. C. Bentley didn't write another full-length novel (although there is a disappointing collection of short-stories entitled 'Trent Intervenes', I think; the only edition of this I have seen was in the green and white Penguin crime classics). The importance of 'Trent's Last Case' is that it helped to shape a new paradigm in British detective stories: witty, social acute, conservative (to the point of looking down on 'trade'), and flippant bordering on frivolous. We have Bentley to thank for Allingham, Christie, Crispin, Hare, Innes, and Sayers; the alternative could have been more tedious imitators of the Great Detective, Sherlock Holmes.