The Woman in Black [annotated]

0/5 ( ratings)

• One of the CRIME WRITERS ASSOCIATION ‘TOP 100 CRIME NOVELS OF ALL TIME’.

• ‘One of the three best detective stories ever written’ AGATHA CHRISTIE.

• ‘One of the seminal novels of the mystery genre’ NEW YORK TIMES.

When millionaire American financier, Sigsbee Manderson, is found dead in the garden of his English country house on the south-west coast, amateur detective Philip Trent is sent by a London newspaper to investigate. Why did Manderson rise in the middle of the night and venture outside? Why is his young widow seemingly relieved at his death? The newly widowed Mabel Manderson, ‘The Lady in Black’, soon has a disarming effect on the fallible and imaginative gentleman sleuth, who together with Scotland Yard Inspector Murth set about solving this puzzling case.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Edmund Clerihew Bentley was born in London in 1875. He studied at Merton College, Oxford before embarking on a career in journalism working for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH for over twenty years. He wrote several non-fiction books, but is best known for his crime fiction masterpiece, TRENT’S LAST CASE , published to universal acclaim in 1913, and arguably the first modern detective novel. It was adapted for film three times and its success eventually persuaded Bentley to write a sequel, TRENT’S OWN CASE, 23 years later in 1936 and a book of Philip Trent short stories in 1938, TRENT INTERVENES. He was president of the DETECTION CLUB from 1936 to 1949 and edited the crime fiction anthology, THE SECOND CENTURY OF DETECTIVE STORIES . He died in 1956.

PRAISE FOR ‘THE WOMAN IN BLACK’

‘One of the three best detective stories ever written’ AGATHA CHRISTIE
‘One of the seminal novels of the mystery genre’ NEW YORK TIMES
‘A masterpiece of detective fiction’ EDGAR WALLACE
‘One of the very best detective stories extant’ FREEMAN WILLS CROFTS
‘A tale of unusual brilliance and charm – startlingly original’ DOROTHY L. SAYERS
‘The roots of the modern detective novel… a wildly successful bestseller’ PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
‘The finest detective story of modern times’ G.K. CHESTERTON