<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: The birth of the Golden Age
Review: Actually Trent's last case is his first - and his last: E. C. Bentley didn't write another full-length novel (although there is a disappointing collection of short-stories entitled 'Trent Intervenes', I think; the only edition of this I have seen was in the green and white Penguin crime classics). The importance of 'Trent's Last Case' is that it helped to shape a new paradigm in British detective stories: witty, social acute, conservative (to the point of looking down on 'trade'), and flippant bordering on frivolous. We have Bentley to thank for Allingham, Christie, Crispin, Hare, Innes, and Sayers; the alternative could have been more tedious imitators of the Great Detective, Sherlock Holmes.
Rating: 
Summary: The First "Modern" Mystery Novel
Review: Scholars consider it the first modern mystery novel. Agatha Christie called it "one of the three best detective stories ever written;" G.K. Chesterton went further, calling it "the finest detective story of modern times." The ever-erudite Dorothy Sayers flatly stated that every mystery novelist owed something to "its liberating and inspiring influence." Today, however, the vast majority of the reading public has never even heard of it.
The novel, of course, is E.C. Bentley's TRENT'S LAST CASE. By most accounts, Bentley wrote the book on a dare--much as Agatha Christie would later write THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES. When financier Sigsbee Manderson is found murdered at his country home, a London newspaper dispatches part-time artist, part-time journalist Trent to the scene. Within three days Trent cracks the case... or so he thinks. But is his solution correct? Or will it result in a terrible miscarriage of justice?
From a 2005 standpoint, TRENT'S LAST CASE is not a remarkable novel. Published in 1913, it feels overwritten, wordy, more Victorian in style than modern--and while the plot itself is interesting, it hardly compares to the unexpected twists offered by the very writers who so praised it and who were so influenced by it. But the fact remains that it was the first: Poe may have created the detective story and such writers as Doyle, Collins, and Dickens may have wrung romantic changes upon the theme, but it really wasn't until TRENT'S LAST CASE that the mystery novel as we presently think of it was born.
Most contemporary readers will likely find Bentley's style tough going, and although extremely influential the triple-twist plot has been done with considerably more drama in later novels. But say what you like, TRENT'S LAST CASE really is "the first," and that counts for a lot. Worth reading for the history of it!
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Rating:
Summary: Good, old-fashioned mystery
Review: This is a wonderful, old-fashioned book, where the language is complex and clever, and honorable people recognize other people of honor at a glance. The plausible (and implausible) explanations of the mystery are intriguing. It's a lot of fun!
Rating:
Summary: The birth of the Golden Age
Review: This is the first of Trent's cases that I have read and I am not sure how many there were previously, but this was an enjoyable read. The characters are developed nicely, the plot flows along at a decent pace, and there are enough twists to keep me guessing. Of course, the solution comes from left field, but was rather interesting based upon the characterization of the deceased. A definite old time mystery without much gore and [sexual content], but interesting nevertheless! Maybe I'll read some of his earlier cases.....
Rating:
Summary: Not bad.....
Review: This is the first of Trent's cases that I have read and I am not sure how many there were previously, but this was an enjoyable read. The characters are developed nicely, the plot flows along at a decent pace, and there are enough twists to keep me guessing. Of course, the solution comes from left field, but was rather interesting based upon the characterization of the deceased. A definite old time mystery without much gore and [sexual content], but interesting nevertheless! Maybe I'll read some of his earlier cases.....
Rating:
Summary: Of Manners and Manors
Review: Trent makes a lasting impression in this, his first, last and only appearance. Appearing in 1913, "Trent's Last Case" is among the first classic English country murder mysteries. It's all butlers, country houses, motor-cars and dressing for dinner, sprinkled with wry observations on the manners of the wealthy, country folk, inn keepers, servants upstairs and downstairs, police inspectors, husbands, widows, American secretaries and French maids. We begin with our man Trent arriving in town to investigate a murder. The plot is brisk, without enough clues to make it a whodunit. Trent's an established painter with a national reputation as an amateur detective and newspaper correspondent. An amateur sleuth would be incomplete without a nemesis, so we have a long-time friendly rival, Inspector Murth. The presumption of a long history and the effortlessness of the characters' interactions was drawn beautifully. All is revealed through what the characters say and do, not by long narrative descriptions. I rather wish this was only the beginning for Trent and not the end.
Rating:
Summary: Of Manners and Manors
Review: Trent makes a lasting impression in this, his first, last and only appearance. Appearing in 1913, "Trent's Last Case" is among the first classic English country murder mysteries. It's all butlers, country houses, motor-cars and dressing for dinner, sprinkled with wry observations on the manners of the wealthy, country folk, inn keepers, servants upstairs and downstairs, police inspectors, husbands, widows, American secretaries and French maids. We begin with our man Trent arriving in town to investigate a murder. The plot is brisk, without enough clues to make it a whodunit. Trent's an established painter with a national reputation as an amateur detective and newspaper correspondent. An amateur sleuth would be incomplete without a nemesis, so we have a long-time friendly rival, Inspector Murth. The presumption of a long history and the effortlessness of the characters' interactions was drawn beautifully. All is revealed through what the characters say and do, not by long narrative descriptions. I rather wish this was only the beginning for Trent and not the end.
<< 1 >>
|
