Trent's Last Case (1913) is a detective novel by E.C. Bentley. Adapted three times for the cinema-including a 1952 feature film starring Michael Wilding, Orson Welles, and Margaret Lockwood-Trent's Last Case, which was titled The Woman in Black in the U.S., 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. 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, Manderson's estate, Trent concludes his investigation with a series of interviews. Beginning with Manderson's wife, he uses his journalistic skill to collect information from the plutocrat's secretaries, servant, and maid, as well as Nathaniel Cupples, Mrs. Manderson's uncle and an old friend of Trent's. When the coroner's 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 Trent's 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. Trent's 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. Bentley's Trent's Last Case is a classic of English detective fiction reimagined for modern readers.

Trent’s Last Case (1913) is a detective novel by E.C. Bentley. Adapted three times for the cinema—including a 1952 feature film starring Michael Wilding, Orson Welles, and Margaret Lockwood—Trent’s Last Case, which was titled The Woman in Black in the U.S., 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. 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, Manderson’s estate, Trent concludes his investigation with a series of interviews. Beginning with Manderson’s wife, he uses his journalistic skill to collect information from the plutocrat’s secretaries, servant, and maid, as well as Nathaniel Cupples, Mrs. Manderson’s uncle and an old friend of Trent’s. When the coroner’s 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 Trent’s 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. Trent’s 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. Bentley’s Trent’s Last Case is a classic of English detective fiction reimagined for modern readers.

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."

Twelve stories from the celebrated author of one of the most famous mystery classics ever written, Trent's Last Case. Philip Trent is an artist, a journalist, and an urbane unraveller of highly problematical crimes. Here the unshakable sleuth appears in twelve tales of misadventure, where the crimes that he investigates range from fraud and embezzlement to criminal assault and murder, yet they all succumb to his adept methods even if the criminal sometimes escapes. Trent Intervenes affirms Bentley's reputation as an author of the first rank and displays his ability to write equally well in the short story form.

The second novel from the celebrated author of one of the most famous mystery classics ever written, Trent's Last Case. James Randolph is murdered early one evening and his body is found a few hours later. When the police arrive they discover that Randolph's safe has been ransacked and discarded wrapping paper litters his bedroom floor. Perhaps by chance or perhaps by design, Trent seems to have been the last person, other than the murderer, to see Randolph alive. But this is only one aspect amongst many which connect Trent with the murder and stimulate his interest: his friend Inspector Bligh is the detective in charge of the investigation, and then a long-time friend readily and perplexingly confesses his guilt. As much as he respects the abilities of Inspector Bligh, Trent's personal knowledge has him doubting the confession and intent on finding the truth.

Trent's Last Case is in fact the first novel in which the sleuth Philip Trent makes his first appearance. The novel breaks new ground in detective fiction history because it is the first novel of any substance that breaks all the rules of the genre: Trent falls in love with one of the primary suspects, and even worse than that, after painstakingly collecting all the evidence, he comes to the the wrong conclusions. This book is a gripping and fascinating story, a mystery that is supposedly solved half way through the book, and then it gets even more interesting. Full of twists and turns, it is a satisfying psychological mystery that unravels. No wonder that it has been made into a film three times.

This volume of 4 Detectives collects the stories of four very different detectives. Bromley Barnes is a retired Chief from the Treasury Department who is often enlisted for cases of national security. Trent's Last Case shows us the investigation of an industrial magnate by a newspaper journalist through all its twists and turns. The four "Divinations of Kala Persad" focus on an intuitive Indian national who aids a young English detective. Gallagher is an eager street-smart newsboy who helps track down and capture a murderer. This diverse group of investigators offers plenty of thrills and pleasurable reading.

When the American plutocrat Sigsbee Manderson is found dead on his estates, Philip Trent is asked by the editor of the Record to investigate the mysterious case. What caused Manderson to rise in the middle of the night and leave the house without properly dressing and without his false teeth? Who did he meet and why? Who was the murderer? Marlowe, his personal secretary? Brunner, his business assistant? Or his beautiful wife? Will Trent be able to solve the mystery? Or will this be Trent's Last Case? This classic book was handcrafted by Resurrected Press. Resurrected Press is dedicated to bringing high quality classic books back to the readers who enjoy them. These are not scanned versions of the originals, but, rather, quality checked and edited books meant to be enjoyed

Identified by Dorothy L. Sayers as the first modern mystery novel. Author E.C. Bentley was primarily a newspaperman.

Identified by Dorothy L. Sayers as the first modern mystery novel. Author E.C. Bentley was primarily a newspaperman.

Many crime and detective stories, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Identified by Dorothy L. Sayers as the first modern mystery novel. Author E.C. Bentley was primarily a newspaperman.

CONTENTS. I. BAD NEWS . 11. KNOCKIN T G H E TOWNE NDWAYS . 111. BREAKFAS . T IV. HANDCUFF IN S THE AIR V. POKINGA BOUT . VI. MR. BUNNER ON THE CASE . VII. THE LADY IN BLACK . VIII. THE INQUEST . IX. A HOT SCENT . X. THE WIFE OF DIVES . XI. HITHERTOU NPUBLISHED . XII. EVIL DAYS . XIII. ERUPTION . XIV. WRITING A LETTER . XV. DOUBLEC UNNING XVI. THE LAST STRAW TRENTS LAST CASE. CHAPTER I. BAD NEWS. B ETWEEN what matters and what seems to matter, how should the world we know judge wisely When the scheming, indomitable brain of Sigsbee Manderson was scattered by a shot from an unknown hand, that world lost nothing worth a single tear it gained something memorable in a harsh reminder of the vanity of such wealth as this dead man had piled up-without making one loyal friend to mourn him, without doing an act that could help his memory to the least honour. But when the news of his end came, it seemed to those living in the great vortices of business as if the earth too shuddered under a blow. In all the lurid commercial history of his country there had been no figure that had so imposed itself upon the mind of the trading world. He had a niche apart in its temples. Financial giants, strong to direct and augment the forces of capital, and taking an approved toll in millions for their labour, had existed before but in the case of Manderson there had been this singularity, that a pale halo of piratical romance, a thing especially dear to the hearts of his countrymen, had remained incongruously about his head through the years when he stood in every eye as the unquestioned guardian of stability, the stamper-out of manipulated crises, the foe of the raiding chieftains that infest the borders of WallStreet. The fortune left by his grandfather, who had been one of those chieftains on the smaller scale of his day, had descended to him with accretion through his father, who during a long lif had quietly continued to lend money and never had margined a stock. Manderson, who had at no time known what it was to be without large sums to his hand, should have been altogether of that. newer American plutocracy which is steadied by the tradition and habit of great wealth. But it was not so. While his nurtdte and education had taught him European ideas of a rich mans proper external circumstance while they had rooted in him an instinct foj quiet magnificence the larger costliness which does not shriek of itself with a thousand tongues there had been handed on to him nevertheless much of the Forty-Niner and financial buccaneer, his forbear...

Trent is a dilettante and artist who occasionally is requisitioned to solve murders by the editor of a London newspaper. Trent's Last Case concerns the mysterious death of an American multi-millionaire living in England and married to a young and beautiful wife. E. C. Bentley (1875 - 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. The success of Trent's Last Case inspired him to write a sequel, Trent's Own Case (1936) and a book of Trent short stories, Trent Intervenes.