Reading the Detectives discussion
Group reads
>
Nominations for June 2017 Group Read - Winner!
date
newest »
newest »
Mod
Trent's Last Case by E.C. Bentley
Given the comments below, I'm intrigued :)
It is the one detective story of the present century which I am certain will go down to posterity as a classic. It is a masterpiece.--Dorothy L Sayers
One of the three best detective stories ever written.--Agatha Christie
Judy wrote: "I've been meaning to nominate this for a while after it keeps being mentioned in other Golden Age books! Trent's Last Case by E.C. Bentley
[bookcover:Trent's Last..."
And was originally titled The Woman in Black which some newer editions have as a sub-title. It is also out of copyright so is free as an e-book. Did you know Raymond Chandler was not so enthused about it. I think it looks like an interesting read though, and have had it on my 'list' for a wee while. :)
Mod
Interesting! I have read a famous piece of his where he criticises English country house mysteries and remembered that he really has a go at The Red House Mystery, but I hadn't remembered that he disliked Trent's Last Case too! I know he includes quite a few spoilers, so I won't revisit the article just at the moment! Thanks for mentioning the alternative title.
Mod
Knock, Murderer, Knock!
“I think,” said Palk slowly, “there’s a homicidal maniac loose in the Hydro, but who it is, God knows.”Presteignton Hydro is a drably genteel spa resort, populated by the aged and crippled who relish every drop of scandal they observe or imagine concerning the younger guests. No one however expects to see gossip turn to murder as their juniors die one by one - no one, that is, except the killer. The crusty cast of characters make solving the case all the harder for Inspector Palk - until the enigmatic sleuth Mr. Winkley arrives to lend a hand.Knock, Murderer, Knock! was Harriet Rutland’s sparkling debut mystery novel, first published in 1938.
I would like to put forward P.C. Richardson's First Case by Basil Thomson
For eight years Basil Thomson headed the famous C.I.D., New Scotland Yard. He knew the Yard inside out. Now in this tale of mystery and detection we are taken behind the scenes. We are shown the greatest detection machine in the world in motion, and see how the Yard tracked down its man.
Stand, then, with young P.C. Richardson on the misty corner of Baker Street, while the traffic of the city swings by, and fate lays at his feet the beginning of his career. Out of the fog brakes shriek, a big car jolts to a stop, and from beneath the wheels the crowd disentangles a bundle of old clothes, within which is a man quite dead; a man who had said to someone, “Very well, then; I’ll call a policeman”—and was killed. Work with him to the ingenious solution, when he takes from his pocket the clue holding the fate of a human life.
Richardson’s First Case was originally published in 1933. This new edition, the first in over seventy years, features an introduction by crime novelist Martin Edwards, author of acclaimed genre history The Golden Age of Murder.
Mod
Judy wrote: "I've been meaning to nominate this for a while after it keeps being mentioned in other Golden Age books! Trent's Last Case by E.C. Bentley
[bookcover:Trent's Last..."
I have read it several times and, like most things, is best the first time through. But it did lead me to read more Bentley.
I came across the Benvenuto Brown series by Elizabeth Gill the other day. So I got The Crime Coast: A Benvenuto Brown Mystery, which was the first.
Mod
Mod
Susan wrote: "Looks interesting, Jan, and currently only 99p on Amazon UK. Duly downloaded as I am sure I will read it."I think it was $1.99 in US.
Mod
Mod
Mod
Mod
Mod
Mod
Mod
Mod
Mod
The Woman in Black is the American title. Amazon has the book listed as both The Woman in Black and Trent's Last Case, and another offering with The Woman in Black as a sub-title. The point is they are one and the same book, so don't be tripped up into thinking he wrote two different books. :)ETA: Should have said on Amazon.com. It is probably listing just with Trent's Last Case in UK.
Mod
Mod
Mod
Judy wrote: "Lesley and Susan, there are also editions at amazon.co.uk with The Woman in Black title and they are much cheaper than those with Trent's Last Case as the title - I just checked! The Kindle prices ..."The Woman in Black can be downloaded through ManyBooks for free and I suspect it is also available on Gutenberg.
Mod
Mod
It didn't help that there was no description for The Woman in Black.I bought my first copy of it in the '70s and I only knew of it as Trent's Last Case. Of course, I had read of it before, probably from The Floating Admiral or some other publication from The Detection Club.
I hadn't known there were two titles for it in the US. And I see that one is free and the other costs 99 cents. When I bought my kindle copy in 2011 I paid the 99 cents.
Mod
The runner-up was The Crime Coast: A Benvenuto Brown Mystery byElizabeth Gill, which will go into our second chance poll in June.
Full results:
Trent's Last Case (Phillip Trent, #1) 10 votes, 43.5%
The Crime Coast: A Benvenuto Brown Mystery 5 votes, 21.7%
P.C. Richardson's First Case (Inspector Richardson, #1) 3 votes, 13.0%
The Polo Ground Mystery 3 votes, 13.0%
Knock, Murderer, Knock! 2 votes, 8.7%
Mod
The book also has the alternate title The Woman in Black (nothing to do with the Susan Hill novel of the same name) and is in the US public domain under that name, so there is a free text at Project Gutenberg and possibly other places too.
Mod
Reading the Detectives
Books mentioned in this topic
The Woman in Black (other topics)Trent's Last Case (other topics)
Trent's Last Case (other topics)
The Crime Coast (other topics)
The Floating Admiral (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
E.C. Bentley (other topics)E.C. Bentley (other topics)
Elizabeth Gill (other topics)
Robin Forsythe (other topics)
Elizabeth Gill (other topics)
More...
A reminder - please don't nominate the following 4 books this time round, as you will be able to vote for them in our runners-up poll in June!
The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin
Enter a Murderer by Ngaio Marsh
Information Received by E.R. Punshon
Murder in Stained Glass by Margaret Armstrong