Written in reaction to what Bentley perceived as the sterility and artificiality of the detective fiction of his day, Trent's Last Case features Philip Trent, an all-too-human detective who not only falls in love with the chief suspect but reaches a brilliant conclusion that is totally wrong.Trent’s Last Case begins when millionaire American financier Sigsbee Manderson is murdered while on holiday in England. A London newspaper sends Trent to investigate, and he is soon matching wits with Scotland Yard's Inspector Murth as they probe ever deeper in search of a solution to a mystery filled with odd, mysterious twists and turns.Called by Agatha Christie «one of the best detective stories ever written,» Trent's Last Case delights with its flesh-and-blood characters, its naturalness and easy humor, and its style, which, as Dorothy Sayers has noted, «ranges from a vividly coloured rhetoric to a delicate and ironical literary fancy.»
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E. C. Bentley. Trent’s Last Case
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INTRODUCTION
TO. GILBERT KEITH CHESTERTON
CHAPTER I. BAD NEWS
CHAPTER II. KNOCKING THE TOWN ENDWAYS
CHAPTER III. BREAKFAST
CHAPTER IV. HANDCUFFS IN THE AIR
CHAPTER V. POKING ABOUT
CHAPTER VI. MR BUNNER ON THE CASE
CHAPTER VII. THE LADY IN BLACK
CHAPTER VIII. THE INQUEST
CHAPTER IX. A HOT SCENT
CHAPTER X. THE WIFE OF DIVES
CHAPTER XI. HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED
CHAPTER XII. EVIL DAYS
CHAPTER XIII. ERUPTION
CHAPTER XIV. WRITING A LETTER
CHAPTER XV. DOUBLE CUNNING
CHAPTER XVI. THE LAST STRAW
AFTERWORD
THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB
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‘THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB is a clearing house for the best detective and mystery stories chosen for you by a select committee of experts. Only the most ingenious crime stories will be published under the THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB imprint. A special distinguishing stamp appears on the wrapper and title page of every THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB book—the Man with the Gun. Always look for the Man with the Gun when buying a Crime book.’
Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1929
.....
‘Are you there?’ said Sir James.
‘Look here, Molloy,’ the voice broke out querulously, ‘the thing may be a case for me, or it may not. We can’t possibly tell. It may be a mystery; it may be as simple as bread and cheese. The body not being robbed looks interesting, but he may have been outed by some wretched tramp whom he found sleeping in the grounds and tried to kick out. It’s the sort of thing he would do. Such a murderer might easily have sense enough to know that to leave the money and valuables was the safest thing. I tell you frankly, I wouldn’t have a hand in hanging a poor devil who had let daylight into a man like Sig Manderson as a measure of social protest.’
