Reviews for Under the gun

The average rating for Under the gun based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-01-08 00:00:00 Daniel Hurtado Trent's Own Case is the second of 3 books written by E.C. Bentley featuring sleuth, Phillip Trent. Trent is an artist, sometime contributor to English newspapers and a successful sleuth. He is respected by Scotland Yard and has helped them solve many cases. Trent's Own Case finds Trent retired. An acquaintance, a rich philanthropist, is murdered and a friend of Trent's confesses to the murder and tries to commit suicide. Trent comes out of retirement and offers to assist his friend, Inspector Bligh with the investigation. Thus begins a meandering investigation that finds Trent visiting France as part of his attempt to find clues to prove his friend innocent of the crime. Trent is somewhat like Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey, a similar personality and an interesting character. While the story starts off slowly, it is always interesting and gradually the various clues and information that Trent gathers begins to make sense and to maybe even provide other suspects. Interesting characters, an interesting story and well-crafted. I'm looking forward to delving into the final book, a collection of short stories involving Phillip Trent. (4 stars)

Review # 2 was written on 2014-06-16 00:00:00 Bradley Wooten This classic of crime fiction deserves the highest praise. After a deceptively digressive start, its twists and red herrings develop with relentless pace. Every plausible suspect is exonerated. Who could be left? Bentley's style is delightfully elegant and unfashionably erudite. 'She traced two lines of inanition on his cheeks with a slim forefinger.' What copy editor today would let that pass? Yet it works, as do Bentley's other shameless jokes with language. Bentley first published Trent's Own Case in 1913, before the Golden Age of detective fiction had properly developed. So when he violates one of Father Knox's famous Ten Commandments for Detective Fiction (1928) we have no heart to blame him. (Agatha Christie did far worse.) Which rule is that? You'll have to read this brilliant story to find out. A work of genius!