When Sigsbee Manderson, a prominent American plutocrat, is murdered at his country estate in southwest England, Philip Trent, an amateur detective and freelance journalist, is hired to investigate the case. Aided by police, Trent begins his examination of the facts and evidence. Granted access to the body as well as the grounds of White Gables, Mandersonâs estate, Trent concludes his investigation with a series of interviews. Beginning with Mandersonâs wife, he uses his journalistic skill to collect information from the plutocratâs secretaries, servant, and maid, as well as Nathaniel Cupples, Mrs. Mandersonâs uncle and an old friend of Trentâs. When the coronerâs report is released, and in coordination with his own research, evidence suggests that Manderson was murdered due to some unknown business vendetta. There is reason to believe, however, that his death could have something to do with his troubled marriage, a possibility complicated by Trentâs growing attraction to Mabel, his widow. Unable to reach a conclusion, Trent embarks for Latvia to work as a traveling correspondent, but no matter how much time or distance he places between himself and White Gables, the questions and the mystery remain. Trentâs Last Case is a masterful detective novel by a writer whose reputation has unjustly faded over the past several decades.
With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of E.C. Bentleyâs Trentâs Last Case is a classic of English detective fiction reimagined for modern readers.
E.C. Bentley (1875-1956) was an English novelist. The son of a civil servant and international rugby player, Bentley was raised in London and attended the prestigious St Paulâs School before attending Merton College, Oxford. In his professional career as a journalist, he worked for several newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph and The Outlook. In his first published book of poems, Biography for Beginners (1905), he invented the clerihew, a form of rhyming light verse consisting of four lines satirizing the biography of its subject. Popularized by Bentley, the form would be used by numerous writers, including G.K. Chesterton and W.H. Auden. In addition to two subsequent collections of poetryâMore Biography (1929) and Baseless Biography (1939)âBentley published the successful detective novel Trentâs Last Case (1913). The novel, which has been adapted three times for the cinema, earned the acclaim of such writers as Dorothy L. Sayers, and was followed by a sequel and a collection of short stories involving its main character. Bentley served for a number of years as president of the Detection Club, a society of British mystery writers that included Sayers, Chesterton, Agatha Christie, and Hugh Walpole, among others. Recognized as a central figure for twentieth century detective fiction, Bentley has inspired generations of writers and readers.