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deeannloso's review
5.0
Wildly entertaining!
Just when you think the case is solved, it is turned on its head. Twists and turns that keep you turning page after page to see what happens next!
Just when you think the case is solved, it is turned on its head. Twists and turns that keep you turning page after page to see what happens next!
vickie's review
4.0
Comments in <20 words: Back when fingerprinting still novel and detectives human. Dragged out finale— Oh. I see.
peanotsilent's review
2.0
I began this book aware of the importance it holds in Golden Age detective fiction. One of Christie's top 3 stories ever written, respected by Sayers and Chesterton and said to be an important (and early) satire of the genre.
So, no, I did not enjoy or care for the book as much as I expected to going in, though I do perhaps understand why it must have felt so subversive a 100 years ago. Bentley hoped to create a detective who was less formulaic and more human, but when the detective is not successful, is he inadvertently proving that detectives must remain on a different plane oh rational thinking to be good at their jobs?
The introduction writing peaens to the dead financier and then abruptly cutting to the relative unimportance of the fact of his death was powerful, as was the discussion on historical murders in the last chapter. However, once cannot help but feel that the book could have ended halfway if male writers did not write women to be overly sensitive and dramatic- and let them participate in conversations normally.
So, no, I did not enjoy or care for the book as much as I expected to going in, though I do perhaps understand why it must have felt so subversive a 100 years ago. Bentley hoped to create a detective who was less formulaic and more human, but when the detective is not successful, is he inadvertently proving that detectives must remain on a different plane oh rational thinking to be good at their jobs?
The introduction writing peaens to the dead financier and then abruptly cutting to the relative unimportance of the fact of his death was powerful, as was the discussion on historical murders in the last chapter. However, once cannot help but feel that the book could have ended halfway if male writers did not write women to be overly sensitive and dramatic- and let them participate in conversations normally.
marcela1016's review
4.0
Anyone who enjoys mysteries in the Collins/Chesterton/Sayers style will thoroughly enjoy this hidden gem of the 'golden age' of the crime novel. Begins as a somewhat conventional mystery but has a thoroughly surprising twist that is elegant and rewarding!
smcleish's review
4.0
Originally published on my blog here in May 2000.
Despite the title, Trent's Last Case was the first of Bentley's novels featuring Philip Trent, a detective conceived as a deliberate contrast to Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is a collection of eccentricities, part of a line of fictional detectives whose mannerisms are more important than their characters; Hercule Poirot is another example. Trent was intended to be more realistic; a man with more or less normal tastes, who was even allowed to be fallible.
This particular edition touts the book as the beginning of the "Golden Age" of English crime writing, though I would myself feel that the phrase is so strongly associated with Agatha Christie that the true beginning must be The Mysterious Affair at Styles a few years later. Though Bentley's work is far superior in literary merit, and particularly on characterisation, it was Christie who really caught the public imagination. Bentley is still a pre-First World War writer, with attitudes and ideas which fit in with writers like G.K. Chesterton (a close friend, and dedicatee of Trent's Last Case) and John Buchan. The genteel, ordered, and, above all, just world of the crime novel which struck a chord with readers after that war was evoked more strongly by Christie because she was writing from a nostalgic point of view about a world that had effectively vanished, while Bentley was still living in it.
The plot of Trent's Last Case retains some of the elements of the Holmesian world: the victim is an American financier (conforming to the brutal and uncultured stereotype of the ruthless self-made man), and among the suspects lies a lurid world of labour secret societies, akin to several created by Conan Doyle. The other suspects are his secretaries, his wife and her uncle, and the servants. There are many strange facets to the case, the most obvious being the odd fact that which a man should be killed missing his false teeth yet carefully dressed.
Though the plot is ingenious, it takes second place to the characters, especially once Trent discovers himself strongly attracted to Mrs Manderson. It is because Philip Trent is an interesting man that the reader continues; the plot itself is rather unsatisfactory by later standards. There are other flaws as far as a modern reader is concerned, such as the casual anti-Semitism and the calm assumption that British culture is superior to all others.
Despite the title, Trent's Last Case was the first of Bentley's novels featuring Philip Trent, a detective conceived as a deliberate contrast to Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is a collection of eccentricities, part of a line of fictional detectives whose mannerisms are more important than their characters; Hercule Poirot is another example. Trent was intended to be more realistic; a man with more or less normal tastes, who was even allowed to be fallible.
This particular edition touts the book as the beginning of the "Golden Age" of English crime writing, though I would myself feel that the phrase is so strongly associated with Agatha Christie that the true beginning must be The Mysterious Affair at Styles a few years later. Though Bentley's work is far superior in literary merit, and particularly on characterisation, it was Christie who really caught the public imagination. Bentley is still a pre-First World War writer, with attitudes and ideas which fit in with writers like G.K. Chesterton (a close friend, and dedicatee of Trent's Last Case) and John Buchan. The genteel, ordered, and, above all, just world of the crime novel which struck a chord with readers after that war was evoked more strongly by Christie because she was writing from a nostalgic point of view about a world that had effectively vanished, while Bentley was still living in it.
The plot of Trent's Last Case retains some of the elements of the Holmesian world: the victim is an American financier (conforming to the brutal and uncultured stereotype of the ruthless self-made man), and among the suspects lies a lurid world of labour secret societies, akin to several created by Conan Doyle. The other suspects are his secretaries, his wife and her uncle, and the servants. There are many strange facets to the case, the most obvious being the odd fact that which a man should be killed missing his false teeth yet carefully dressed.
Though the plot is ingenious, it takes second place to the characters, especially once Trent discovers himself strongly attracted to Mrs Manderson. It is because Philip Trent is an interesting man that the reader continues; the plot itself is rather unsatisfactory by later standards. There are other flaws as far as a modern reader is concerned, such as the casual anti-Semitism and the calm assumption that British culture is superior to all others.
poojapillai's review
5.0
'Trent's Last Case' (1913) is, ironically, the first in the Trent series by EC Bentley. It's a short series, admittedly, running to only two more books, but with this first book, Bentley shook up the detective fiction scene which was at the time mostly dealing out Sherlock Holmes clones. He in fact wrote the book as an anti-thesis to everything that the standard detective story had come to stand for: nor only was Trent a genial, conversation *normal* human, but he was also prone to mistakes. Major ones. Like taking all the evidence & arriving at a completely, awfully wrong solution to the point where he had to have his errors pointed out to him by the actual murderer. I wasn't at all surprised to learn that this was one of the books that heralded the beginning of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.
But this a delightful book not just for the twist at the end (and this was the first novel to do the Twist, by the way), but for the way it leavens the narrative with humor, makes the conversations between its characters seem like things people would actually say to each other and for that marvelous, marvelous first chapter. In fact, I defy anyone to find an opening chapter in any other crime novel that so expertly introduces us to the victim while also folding in socio-economic commentary AND snark.
But this a delightful book not just for the twist at the end (and this was the first novel to do the Twist, by the way), but for the way it leavens the narrative with humor, makes the conversations between its characters seem like things people would actually say to each other and for that marvelous, marvelous first chapter. In fact, I defy anyone to find an opening chapter in any other crime novel that so expertly introduces us to the victim while also folding in socio-economic commentary AND snark.
zoer03's review
5.0
Pretty damn good. Really easy to read and follow. Though really the main amateur guy is a bit useless at least two people solved his crime and one his own friend. But still good.
lnatal's review
3.0
Free download available at Project Gutenberg.
From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
Sigsbee Manderson is both renowned and hated throughout the financial world. One day he's found murdered...
Amateur sleuth Philip Trent heads to the country to investigate. It's a case that will prove to be his last, and one he certainly won't forget...
First published in 1913, EC Bentley's detective novel adapted by Alan Downer.
Philip Trent ...... Martin Jarvis
Mabel Manderson ...... Helena Breck
Marlowe ...... Simon Hewitt
Bonner ...... Brian Hewlett
Cupples ...... Manning Wilson
Inspector Murch ...... Alan Downer
Martin ...... Stephen Thorne
Sir James Molloy ...... Sean Barrett
Mrs Morgan ...... Joanna Wake
Figgis ...... Paul Gregory
Eddison ...... David Goodland
Williams ...... Stuart Organ
Dr Stock ...... Simon Cuff
Director: Gerry Jones.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1986.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005gxl
From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
Sigsbee Manderson is both renowned and hated throughout the financial world. One day he's found murdered...
Amateur sleuth Philip Trent heads to the country to investigate. It's a case that will prove to be his last, and one he certainly won't forget...
First published in 1913, EC Bentley's detective novel adapted by Alan Downer.
Philip Trent ...... Martin Jarvis
Mabel Manderson ...... Helena Breck
Marlowe ...... Simon Hewitt
Bonner ...... Brian Hewlett
Cupples ...... Manning Wilson
Inspector Murch ...... Alan Downer
Martin ...... Stephen Thorne
Sir James Molloy ...... Sean Barrett
Mrs Morgan ...... Joanna Wake
Figgis ...... Paul Gregory
Eddison ...... David Goodland
Williams ...... Stuart Organ
Dr Stock ...... Simon Cuff
Director: Gerry Jones.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1986.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005gxl