Monthly Archives: January 2012

Trent’s Last Case

I have just finished  this book for the second time.  The first time was in September/October 1944 !!!  I know this because I wrote on the flyleaf Lincoln 28/9/44.  That is where and when I bought it. So I must have come into Lincoln that day from nearby Dunholme where I was stationed with the RAF as a Bomb Aimer flying in Lancasters of 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron. No doubt I was delighted to find it as there was a scarcity of books at that time. Now, here I was reading it again after all those years. Why? Had I enjoyed it so much? Curiosity because I couldn’t remember a great deal about it?  Maybe neither of those; maybe it happened to be the book I plucked from one of my bookshelves when looking for something to read. Well, whatever. Did I enjoy it again? Yes I did. I suppose we regard it as a detective novel but Trent is not a detective; he is a journalist adept at sussing out crime stories and seemingly solving them  He leads us along that path in this story and maybe it is because his conclusions are wrong that the story is titled Trent’s Last Case. E.C. Bentley, the author, chooses an unusual way to tell his story. Trent’s deductions appear perfectly reasonable but there is always a little trigger of doubt in your mind. Then the author reveals the truth, by the unexpected route of the criminal in a conversation with Trent revealing how he commited the crime. Intriguing even after all these years – how many? 67!!  Oh, my goodness. Iwonder how many books I have read in that time?

BOOK NEWS

Today I finished polishing the final draft of my new novel, provisionaly titled IN THE SILENCE OF THE SNOW. My contract required it to be with my publishers by February 1st, so that will be met. It is a panoramic novel following the lives of two families from 1912 to 1945, a time of two world wars and social change. It will probably be published in 2013 This will be my 22nd book written under the name of Jessica Blair.                

In the meantime my next book to be published appears on 2nd February this year. THE ROAD BENEATH ME  is set in the nineteenth century in Whitby, Shetland, and Nova Scotia and shows how love can survive against a background of commercail ambitions and the upheavals of the Shetland Clearances