Trent's Last Case
Trent's Last Case
By: E. C. Bentley
Trent’s Last Case is actually the first novel in which gentleman sleuth Philip Trent appears. The novel is a whodunit with a place in detective fiction history because it is the first major sendup of that genre. Not
only does Trent fall in love with one of the primary suspects—usually considered a no-no—he also, after painstakingly collecting all the evidence, draws the wrong conclusion, as he learns subsequently through not one but two surprise revelations.
Title information
E. C. Bentley
E. C. Bentley (1875-1956) was a popular English novelist and humorist of the early 20th century. 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. It was adapted as a film in 1920, 1929, and 1952.
