   trent's last case is a detective novel written by e.c. bentley and first published in 1913. its central character reappeared subsequently in the novel trent's own case (1936) and the short-story collection trent intervenes (1938). ==plot summary== trent's last case is actually the first novel in which gentleman sleuth philip trent appears. the novel is a whodunit with a place in detective fiction history because it is the first major sendup of that genre: not only does trent fall in love with one of the primary suspectsâusually considered a no-noâhe also, after painstakingly collecting all the evidence, draws all the wrong conclusions. convinced that he has tracked down the murderer of a business tycoon who was shot in his mansion, he is told by the real perpetrator over dinner what mistakes in logical deduction he has made in trying to solve the case. on hearing what really happened, trent vows that he will never again attempt to dabble in crime detection. ==reception== in his critique of the mystery genre, the simple art of murder, raymond chandler ridiculed some plot points that he considered preposterous: "i have known relatively few international financiers, but i rather think the author of this novel has (if possible) known fewer." according to aaron marc stein in his introduction to the 1977 edition, published by university extension of ucsd: "at the risk of bringing down on his memory the wrath of the baker street irregulars it must be recorded that bentley had reservations about even the conan doyle originals. he deplored the great detective's lack of humor and he was irritated by the sherlockian eccentricities.... bentley had the idea of doing a detective who would be a human being and
1913_novels Crime_novels Films_based_on_mystery_novels