Editing Trent's Last Case (novel) (section)

==Plot summary==
Sigsbee Manderson, a wealthy American [[plutocrat]], is found shot dead in the grounds of his English country house. Philip Trent, an artist, freelance journalist, and amateur detective, is commissioned by Sir James Molloy, a [[Fleet Street]] press magnate, to investigate and report on the case. Trent receives the co-operation of the police – the investigating officer, Inspector Murch of [[Scotland Yard]], is an old acquaintance – and is able to view the body, examine the house and grounds, and interview those involved. Other members of the household include Manderson's wife, Mabel; his two secretaries, Calvin Bunner, an American, and John Marlowe, an Englishman; Martin, a [[manservant]]; and Célestine, a [[lady's maid]]. Nathaniel Cupples, Mabel's uncle-by-marriage and another old friend of Trent, is staying at a hotel in the village.

Trent pursues his enquiries, and learns that the Mandersons' marriage was in difficulties and that the couple had grown distant from each other. In the course of his investigation, he falls in love with Mabel Manderson. The [[Inquests in England and Wales|coroner's inquest]] finds that Manderson was killed by a person or persons unknown: the suggestion is that he was the victim of a [[feud|business vendetta]]. Trent, however, concludes that Manderson was shot by Marlowe, who then returned to the house wearing some of Manderson's outer clothing in order to give the impression that Manderson was at that point still alive, before driving to [[Southampton]] to provide himself with an alibi. Trent believes that Marlowe's motive was his own love for Mabel, but is unclear as to how far she may have reciprocated in these feelings. He writes down his ideas in the form of a dispatch for Molloy, but before sending it presents it to Mabel and asks whether there had been anything between her and Marlowe. Her reaction persuades him that there had been, and he leaves the dispatch unsent.

Six months later Trent re-establishes contact with Mabel in London and finally extracts her version of events. She tells him that there had never been any sort of intimacy between her and Marlowe, but that her husband's suspicions had been the cause of their marital rift, and that in his jealousy he may have plotted an act of revenge. Trent sends Marlowe his original dispatch and arranges a meeting at which Cupples is also present. At the meeting, Marlowe explains that Manderson fabricated a web of incriminating evidence to implicate Marlowe in his apparent "murder" and then shot himself. Having realised what was happening, and having discovered Manderson's body, Marlowe had attempted to cover his tracks and give himself an alibi – this much of Trent's analysis had been correct.

Following this meeting, Trent and Cupples have dinner together, and Cupples reveals that while the majority of Marlowe's story had been accurate, it was in fact he who had fired the fatal shot. He had chanced upon Manderson pointing a pistol at himself, probably meaning only to cause a self-inflicted wound. Suspecting a [[suicide attempt]], Cupples had intervened, and in the ensuing struggle had accidentally shot Manderson in the face.

The book ends with Trent vowing that he will never again attempt to dabble in crime detection.