Trent's Last Case

by E. C. (Edmund Clerihew) Bentley

"Trent's Last Case" by E. C. Bentley is a detective novel published in 1913. When wealthy American plutocrat Sigsbee Manderson is found shot dead at his English country estate, artist and amateur detective Philip Trent investigates the mysterious circumstances. But this groundbreaking whodunit subverts genre conventions: Trent falls in love with a prime suspect and, despite meticulously gathering evidence, draws completely wrong conclusions. The novel revolutionized detective fiction by offering the first major send-up of the genre itself.