Trent's Last Case

Ah, I just love a good mystery. They are my first loves when it comes to book genres. This is an early mystery and I think its considered the first detective novel (although I'm pretty sure I've heard that about other books and this was written after the Moonstone so take that for what it is - random old book gossip I heard). This is my first E. C. Bentley story and I hadn't ever heard of him until recently which is surprising given that he was president of the Detective Club and G. K Chesterton even dedicated The Man Who Was Thursday to him (although I had to spend all my time trying to figure out the basics of what was happening in that story that I had none to spare for the dedication).

It starts off like your run of the mill amateur detective story - not a bad one but nothing particularly special. I had heard that Dorothy Sayers was a fan of this story and while I was enjoying it, I was a but perplexed as to the great love....then about the half way point, the plot starts to thicken and the second half is just great fun. I never like to say too much about detective stories because I like to read them with very little prior information myself but I think anyone who considers themselves a classic mystery buff would enjoy this one. Just know if you try it, make sure you stick with it.

Trent's Last Case is my Genre Classic for The Back to the Classics Challenge.