Trent's Own Case

New York: Grosset & Dunlap. Very Good+ in Good dj. (c.1936). Reprint (stated 2nd printing). Hardcover. [good sound copy, minor shelfwear, one-time owner's name plus date & place of purchase written in ink at top of front endpaper; the jacket is lightly soiled and presents well in new mylar, but is extensively tape-reinforced on the verso (along all edges and seams), and has been both touched-up and filled-in with black ink to conceal some paper loss at both ends of the front fold and the top of the spine; there is also a tiny vintage bookseller's label (Woodward & Lothrop, Washington) at the upper corner of the rear flap]. The second Philip Trent mystery -- published 23 years after the first, "Trent's Last Case," which by then was an acknowledged classic of the genre. Per Charles Shibuk, in Reilly's "Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers": The book "starts with the discovery of an elderly philanthropist found shot in the back in his bedroom, and the only clue points staight to Philip Trent," who had earlier painted the man's portrait. (Trent was an artist as well as an amateur criminologist.) Shibuk continues: "[The book], it must be admitted, is hardly the equal of its illustrious predecessor, but it is an excellent detective novel of considerable skill and depth." .