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

==Reception==

[[G. K. Chesterton]], author of the [[Father Brown]] mysteries, felt that this novel was "The finest detective story of modern times".  (Bentley and Chesterton were close personal friends, and Bentley dedicated the book to Chesterton.) The book was influential in the postwar "Golden Age" of detective stories: [[Agatha Christie]] called ''Trent's Last Case'' "One of the three best detective stories ever written".<ref>The quotations from Chesterton and Christie are blurbs from the back of the 1978 Harper and Row Perennial Library paperback edition.</ref>  [[Dorothy L. Sayers]] wrote that "It shook the little world of the mystery novel like a revolution ... Every detective writer of today owes something, consciously or unconsciously, to its liberating and inspiring influence."<ref>Dorothy L. Sayers, "Introduction" to Bentley, ''Trent's Last Case'' (Harper and Row Perennial Library), introduction copyright 1978 by Anthony Fleming. Sayers' Introduction appears to have been written for a radio play, probably the 1934 BBC production, but was never used until this edition of the novel.</ref> It was still admired in the second half of the century; literary critic [[Jacques Barzun]], co-author of ''A Catalogue of Crime'' (1971), included it in his top ten mystery novels, as did mystery novelists [[Reginald Hill]] and [[Peter Straub]].<ref>As per ''The Armchair Detective Book of Lists,'' ed. Kate Stine (New York: Otto Penzler Books, 1995).</ref> 

In his critique of the mystery genre, ''[[The Simple Art of Murder]]'', [[Raymond Chandler]] said that it was frequently called "the perfect story" before ridiculing some plot points that he considered preposterous: "I have known relatively few international financiers, but I rather think the author of this novel has (if possible) known fewer."<ref>[https://www.fadedpage.com/books/20140930/html.php Raymond Chandler, ''The Simple Art of Murder'' (1950) at The Faded Page, HTML version.]</ref>

According to [[Aaron Marc Stein]] in his introduction to the 1977 edition, published by University Extension of [[UCSD]]: "At the risk of bringing down on his memory the wrath of the [[Baker Street Irregulars]] it must be recorded that Bentley had reservations about even the [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] originals. He deplored the great detective's lack of humor and he was irritated by the Sherlockian eccentricities.... Bentley had the idea of doing a detective who would be a human being and who would know how to laugh."