Trent Intervenes

E. C. Bentley, the author of TRENT'S LAST CASE (1913), wrote 13 short mystery stories dealing with the earlier exploits of Philip Trent. Twelve of those stories are included in TRENT INTERVENES (1938). The 13th, titled "The Ministering Angel," appeared in THE STRAND magazine in Nov. 1938 and has been reprinted in at least 3 anthologies that are fairly easy to locate. Of the 12 stories in this collection, most are fair-play puzzle stories which readers will have a good chance of solving. The others provide enjoyment of other kinds. Overall, if I were to give this book a letter grade, it would be a B+. Totally by coincidence, I would rate 4 of its stories in the "A" range, 4 more in the "B" range, and the remaining 4 in the "C" range. In my opinion, the best stories are "The Ordinary Hairpins" (an excellent Character Disclosure story in which Trent looks for an opera singer who supposedly committed suicide), "The Old-Fashioned Apache" (a good Puzzler involving an arrogant bookseller), "The Public Benefactor" (an interesting tale of revenge that will remind some readers of the movie GASLIGHT), and "The Sweet Shot" (a good Puzzler involving murder on a golf course). Slightly below those four, I would rank "The Clever Cockatoo" (a "success story" rather than a fair-play Puzzler--Trent discovers why a woman is having mental lapses), "Trent and the Bad Dog" (a Puzzler involving murder by means of a knife), "Trent and the Fool-Proof Lift" (a Puzzler involving murder by means of an elevator), and "The Unknown Peer" (a Puzzler with wines as the clue that a murder had even taken place). And below these, I would place "The Genuine Tabard" (a mildly humorous Situation Disclosure story requiring specialized knowledge of a British university to "solve"), "The Inoffensive Captain" (a so-so Puzzler involving the decoding of a letter), "The Little Mystery" (another so-so Puzzler involving a doctor's secretary--very similar to Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League"), and "The Vanishing Lawyer" (a third so-so Puzzler involving an embezzling lawyer). In a fairly high number of cases, the criminals escape, and in one case Trent makes no effort to see that a murderer is punished.

E. C. Bentley, the author of TRENT'S LAST CASE (1913), wrote 13 short mystery stories dealing with the earlier exploits of Philip Trent. Twelve of those stories are included in TRENT INTERVENES (1938). The 13th, titled "The Ministering Angel," appeared in THE STRAND magazine in Nov. 1938 and has been reprinted in at least 3 anthologies that are fairly easy to locate. Of the 12 stories in this collection, most are fair-play puzzle stories which readers will have a good chance of solving. The others provide enjoyment of other kinds. Overall, if I were to give this book a letter grade, it would be a B+. Totally by coincidence, I would rate 4 of its stories in the "A" range, 4 more in the "B" range, and the remaining 4 in the "C" range. In my opinion, the best stories are "The Ordinary Hairpins" (an excellent Character Disclosure story in which Trent looks for an opera singer who supposedly committed suicide), "The Old-Fashioned Apache" (a good Puzzler involving an arrogant bookseller), "The Public Benefactor" (an interesting tale of revenge that will remind some readers of the movie GASLIGHT), and "The Sweet Shot" (a good Puzzler involving murder on a golf course). Slightly below those four, I would rank "The Clever Cockatoo" (a "success story" rather than a fair-play Puzzler--Trent discovers why a woman is having mental lapses), "Trent and the Bad Dog" (a Puzzler involving murder by means of a knife), "Trent and the Fool-Proof Lift" (a Puzzler involving murder by means of an elevator), and "The Unknown Peer" (a Puzzler with wines as the clue that a murder had even taken place). And below these, I would place "The Genuine Tabard" (a mildly humorous Situation Disclosure story requiring specialized knowledge of a British university to "solve"), "The Inoffensive Captain" (a so-so Puzzler involving the decoding of a letter), "The Little Mystery" (another so-so Puzzler involving a doctor's secretary--very similar to Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League"), and "The Vanishing Lawyer" (a third so-so Puzzler involving an embezzling lawyer). In a fairly high number of cases, the criminals escape, and in one case Trent makes no effort to see that a murderer is punished.