Trent's Last Case

Trent's Last Case is a detective novel written by E.C. Bentley and first published in 1913. Trent's Last Case is actually the first novel in which gentleman sleuth Philip Trent appears. The novel is a is the first major sendup of the detective novel genre. Not only does Trent fall in love with one of the primary suspects, he draws all the wrong conclusions after painstakingly collecting all the evidence.