E. C. Bentley (1875–1956)

When internationally renowned financier Sigsbee Manderson is found dead on the grounds outside his home, the news sends shock waves throughout English society. Hoping to learn more about the circumstances of Manderson's death, a notable newspaper magnate calls upon Philip Trent, journalist and amateur detective, to go into Manderson's neighborhood and investigate the case. Trent soon discovers that Manderson was almost universally disliked, so there is no shortage of suspects, from either of show more Manderson's two secretaries to his estranged wife. The more Trent learns about the case, the more he suspects Mrs. Manderson of being involved in her husband's death. All too soon, Trent arrives at a theory of the case that heavily implicates Mrs. Manderson -- which is unfortunate, because he has fallen head over heels in love with her. Will he do the law-abiding thing and disclose his solution to the police, or will he protect the woman he loves?

Contrary to what the title suggests, this is actually the first book featuring Philip Trent; after a 20-year gap, Bentley eventually wrote two more Trent books. Anyway, I knew I would enjoy this book from the moment I saw the dedication to G.K. Chesterton, whom I love. And indeed, there is a sort of Chestertonian twist to the mystery about halfway through, which I don't want to spoil but which I really, really enjoyed! The writing style is a bit ponderous and old-fashioned, as you'd expect from a book originally published in 1913, but I soon got used to it. I liked Philip Trent as a character; unlike some of literature's more famous detectives (ahem, Holmes and Poirot), he's a fairly normal human being without dramatic idiosyncrasies. The romance is very sweet, and the solution to the mystery is both ingenious and unexpected -- or at least it was to me! I would definitely recommend this book to fans of vintage mysteries, especially those who are interested in the history of the detective novel. show less

The Last Case in a First Book
Review of the HarperCollins paperback edition (1978) including a Introductory note by Dorothy L. Sayers of the original Nelson hardcover (1913)

“One of the three best detective stories ever written.” - Agatha Christie.
“The finest detective story of modern times.” - G. K. Chesterton.
“One of the few genuine classics of detective fiction.” - The New York Times
“It is a masterpiece.” - Dorothy L. Sayers.

It has its faults, but Trent's Last Case still show more brings with it an ingenious solution, an elaborate explanation and a surprise twist ending that can still face down many up and comers in the detective story sweepstakes.

What makes it a classic most of all is that it was intended as a sendup of the genre in a friendly competition between writers G.K. Chesterton and E.C. Bentley. Bentley's dedication indicates it as a response to Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday (1908). Bentley has as his investigator an artist and journalist Philip Trent, who dabbles also as an amateur sleuth. The sendup is that even though Trent is able to construct an ingenious explanation for the crime, it is entirely wrong. This is then complicated by having yet another solution presented by one of the suspects and then a final twist solution on top of that which is again entirely different.

The result is that Trent states at the end of the book that it would be his last case: "he would never touch a crime mystery again," after having been doubly out-witted. Trent did in fact return though in two later sequel books Trent's Own Case (1936) and Trent Intervenes (1938).

The first-time reader is advised to skip the purple prose of the entire first chapter though, which provides an overly detailed and exaggerated description of the effect that the murder has on the entire financial world. It really has no bearing on the rest of the story, and it will likely try your patience and discourage you from continuing. Hardboiled crime writer Raymond Chandler in his putdown review in The Simple Art of Murder (1944) said that: "I have known relatively few international financiers, but I rather think the author of this novel has (if possible) known fewer."

Trent's Last Case is in the public domain and there are many downloadable eBook editions available. Goodreads links to several of them here.

I read Trent's Last Case as part of my continuing pandemic inspired survey of novels from the Golden Age of Crime including re-reads of books from my early reading days. show less

Philip Trent has been called in by the newspaper to get to the bottom of a story and crime. He has has success on a few other cases, and everyone looks to him with high expectations. But somehow, the story never gets published.
I enjoyed it, although it seemed a bit quaint in some of the mannerisms and language. Other parts seemed exceedingly modern for its times. As a murder mystery, it completely fooled me, and yet the author played fair all along. Reading it, I could certainly see the show more seeds of Lord Peter Wimsey, Poirot and many other detective stories of the Golden Age of mysteries. Loved the dedication to Chesterton, and Sayers' introduction was a good comparison and illustration to show why this is a special mystery. Also, I don't know who did the cover on my version, but I love the look of Philip Trent on it, even though I think the story said he had sandy tousled hair. show less

review of
E.C. Bentley's Trent's Last Case
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - November 18-20, 2019

The introduction by writer Dorothy Sayers states "you could have no idea how startlingly original it seemed when it first appeared. It shook the world of the mystery novel like a revolution, and nothing was ever quite the same again. Every detective writer of today owes something, consciously or unconsciously, to its liberating and inspiring influence." (p x) I'm inclined to agree that it's an show more important bk. It was originally copyrighted in 1913. I've only 'recently' become an appreciator of crime fiction, my experience w/ pre-1913 mysteries is limited to Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) & Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) & probably a few other authors that I'm forgetting at the moment. Trent's Last Case added a sense of moral uncertainty that might not've been there before. I liked Bentley's writing from the beginning:

"Between 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." - p 3

The dead man's character, & character flaws, are put under exceptional scrutiny:

"Like the poet who died in Rome, so young and poor, a hundred years ago, he was buried far away from his own land; but for all the men and women of Manderson's people who flock round the tomb of Keats in the cemetery under the Monte Testaccio, there is not one, nor ever will be, to stand in reverence by the rich man's grave beside the little church of Marlstone." - p 10

"["]To take the Pennsylvania coal hold-up alone, there were thirty-thousand men, with women and children to keep, who would have jumped at the chance of drilling a hole throuhg the man who fixed it so that they must starve or give in to his terms. Thirty thousand of the toughest aliens in the country, Mr. Trent. There's a type of desperado in that kind of push who has been known to lay for a man for years, and kill him when he had forgotten what he did. They have been known to dynamite a man in Idaho who had done them dirt in New Jersey ten years before. Do you suppose the Atlantic is going to stop them?["]" - pp 87-88

Trent has entered the case as a reporter but he's known far & wide for his detective abilities so an unspoken agreement is reached w/ the police:

"The inspector would talk more freely to him than to any one, under the rose, and they would discuss details and possibilities of every case, to their mutual enlightenment. There were necessary rules and limits. It was understood between them that Trent made no journalistic use of any point that could only have come to him from an official source. Each of them, moreover, for the honor and prestige of the instiution he represented, openly reserved the right to withhold from the other any discovery or inspiration that might come to him which he considered vital to the solution of the difficulty." - p 44

I suppose that one of the reasons why people enjoy detective stories is b/c we like to follow the investigator's procedure. Here, we get a little lesson in rigor mortis:

"There are many things that may hasten or retard the cooling of the body. This one was lying in the long dewy grass on the shady side of the shed. As for rigidity, if Manderson died in a struggle, or laboring under sudden emotion, his corpse might stiffen practically instantaneously; there are dozens of cases noted, particularly in cases of injuries to the skull, like this one. On the other hand, the stiffening might not have begun until eight or ten hours after death. You can't hang anybody on rigor mortis nowadays" - p 63

Trent is inspired & instead of attending the inquest he goes off on more obscure paths:

"had there made certain purchases at a chemist's shop, conferred privately for some time with a photographer, sent off a reply-paid telegram, and made an inquiry at the telephone exchange." - p 89

Trent comments on the sameness of hotel rms, showing the homogenization of such things happening as early as 1913:

"["]Have you ever been in this room before, Cupples? I have, hundreds of times. It has pursued me all over England for years. I should feel lost without it if, in some fantastic, far-off hotel, they were to give me some other sitting-room. Look at this table-cover; there is the ink I spilt on it when I had this room in Halifax. I burnt that hole in the carpet when I had it in Ipswich. But I see they have mended the glass over the pciture of "Silent Sympathy," which I threw a boot at in Banbury.["]" - p 112

This bk was copyrighted 106 yrs ago. To people who read a fair amt, like I do, that doesn't seem long ago at all — after all, it was only 40 yrs before I was born. Nonetheless, think about the following:

"[']Do you recognize the powder inside it? You have swallowed pounds of it in your time, I expect. They give it to babies. Grey powder is its ordinary name—mercury and chalk. It is great stuff.[']" - p 113

Now cf that to today's take on the subject:

"Blue mass was used as a specific treatment for syphilis from at least the late 17th century to the early 18th. Blue mass was recommended as a remedy for such widely varied complaints as tuberculosis, constipation, toothache, parasitic infestations, and the pains of childbirth.

"A combination of blue mass and a mixture called the common black draught was a standard cure for constipation in early 19th century England and elsewhere. It was particularly valued on ships of the Royal Navy, where sailors and officers were constrained to eat rock-hard salted beef and pork, old stale biscuits (hardtack), and very little fruit, fiber, or other fresh food once they were at sea for an extended period.

"It was a magistral preparation, compounded by pharmacists themselves based on their own recipes or on one of several widespread recipes. It was sold in the form of blue or gray pills, or syrup. Its name probably derives from the use of blue dye or blue chalk (used as a buffer) in some formulations.

"The ingredients of blue mass varied, as each pharmacist prepared it himself, but they all included mercury in elemental or compound form (often as mercury chloride, also known as calomel). One recipe of the period included (for blue mass syrup):
• 33% mercury (measured by weight)
• 5% licorice
• 25% Althaea (possibly hollyhock or marshmallow)
• 3% glycerol
• 34% rose honey
Blue pills were produced by substituting milk sugar and rose oil for the glycerol and rose honey. pills contained one grain (64.8 milligrams) of mercury.

"Toxicity

"Mercury is known today to be toxic, and ingestion of mercury leads to mercury poisoning, a form of heavy-metal poisoning. While mercury is still used in compound form in some types of medicines and for other purposes, blue mass contained excessive amounts of the metal: a typical daily dose of two or three blue mass pills represented ingestion of more than one hundred times the daily limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States today."

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_mass

Imagine all the brain damage & health problems that were caused by giving the stuff to babies! &, yet, drs wd've been pd to recommend it & pharmacists wd've pd to provide it! Now think about the current day: has the situation changed that much? Sure, now mercury's recognized as being toxic — but the death-hold that drs & pharmacists have on the vast majroity of people who're foolish enuf to believe in their priestcraft might very well be stronger than ever.

"'The people,' she said. 'Oh, those people! Can you imagine what it must be for anyone who has lived in a world where there was always creative work in the background, work with some dignity about it, men and women with professions or arts to follow, with ideals and things to believe in and quarrel about, some of them wealthy, some of them quite poor; can you think what it means to step out of that into another world where you have to be rich, shamefully rich, to exist at all—where money is the only thing that counts and the first thing in everybody's thoughts—where the men who make the millions are so jaded by the work, that sport is the only thing they can occupy themselves with when they have any leisure, and the men who don't have to work are even duller than the men who do, and vicious as well[']" - pp 122-123

Yeah, it's called capitalism.

By the by, I read aloud from Trent's Last Case in a movie of mine called Diabetes Type 2. The relevant section is here: https://youtu.be/2GLu66dgpKI?t=3599 .

"So strong had been the influence of the unquestioned assumption that it was Manderson who was present that night, that neither I nor, as far as I know, anyone else had noted the point. Martin had not seen the dead man's face; nor had Mrs. Manderson." - p 135

A similar element is used in Carolyn Wells's The Clue of the Eyelash (1933) so I wonder if Wells was influenced by Bentley. See my review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2923714946 .

Anyway, the perpendicularity of my globularistic conditioning is an inherited traitess [pun intended]:

"[']It's just the same when we want to be serious; we mark it by turning to long words. When a solicitor can begin a sentence with, "pursuant to the instructions communicated to our representative," or some such gibberish, he feels that he is earning his six-and-eightpence.[']" - p 179

This is a good bk. Amen. show less