Trent’s Last Case by E. C. Bentley (Nelson, 1913); audiobook read by Steven Crossley (HarperCollins, 2017) A cultivated, rather loquacious narrative, pleasant enough to read and certainly ingenious, though Trent is cloyingly self-absorbed and everything rests upon a glossed-over mis-assignation of the time of death. (The motivation for removing Manderson’s false teeth also bears up poorly under scrutiny.)
Tag: Steven Crossley
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, 1890); audiobook read by Steven Crossley (W F Howes, 2012) The story is justly famous and the epigrams easy to quote, yet the overall reading experience is rendered wearisome by Wilde’s tacked-on (and continuously hammered home) cod philosophy. The character of Sir Henry presumably inspired that of The Sphinx…