Trent's Last Case

A rediscovered Golden Age crime classic praised by Agatha Christie as “one of the best detective stories ever written.”

“Every detective writer of today owes something, consciously or unconsciously, to its liberating and inspiring influence.” —Dorothy L. Sayers

Wall Street tycoon Sigsbee Manderson has been shot dead at his English country home. Panic spreads through the markets like a hurricane; across Europe and America prices totter and crash. Fortunes that seemed secure a day before are left in ruins.

The list of those who hated Manderson is endless: his financial empire could smash a strike without a thought and send ruin upon any number of homes in an instant. 

But the police can find no killer; the evidence is all over the place. How did Manderson seemingly wake in the early hours of the morning and leave his house remembering his pocket watch, keys and suspenders—but leaving his dentures on the dressing table?

Meanwhile, the newspapers are counting their earnings, and the offices of Record newspaper have telephoned their star reporter. Young, charming artist Philip Trent has already become a household name for his investigative reports on murder cases. Expecting to soon have an ingenious solution for the public, Trent sets out to Manderson’s estate.

But the revelations that keep coming defy all Trent’s powers of logic. Bumbling through repeated false revelations and the distractions of romance, can he untangle the web of contradictory evidence, or will this become Trent’s last case?