NefariousHouseplant t1_j9x2zku wrote on February 25, 2023 at 4:30 AM

Spoilers for a super old novel but I think what you might be reacting to is the fact that, honestly, the reveal doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in this one. Once again spoiler warning but the killer fakes his death midway through the story to throw off suspicion and they say he pulls it off with the help of the doctor, but he supposedly dies from a gunshot wound to the head. His body is on full display as the doctor examines him so it’s not like his body was hidden from examination.

I read it a few years back so correct me if I’m misremembering the details but I remember being very let down because I’d always heard this novel was one of the pinnacles of murder mysteries, but it’s just SO hard for me to believe that a gunshot wound to the head was successfully faked when so many other ways of “dying” would have worked much better.

Walmsley7 t1_j9x40ch wrote on February 25, 2023 at 4:40 AM

I read it a few months back. If I recall, the setup is that it is dark in the house at the time, lights went out so they only have candles I think, making it a little easier to pass off the cover up. Plus, that character is like the 5th (?) to die so can say that those remaining were pretty accepting that he’d be dead.

That said, when I was reading it, I was immediately suspicious of that death because of the way it was described. I didn’t quite get to the conclusion, but thought it was odd.