Just finished a murder mystery where the killer literally turned out to be a ghost and the detective just shrugged it off

Found this 1970s paperback at a thrift store in Akron where the final chapter reveals the murderer died 20 years before the crime and the detective says 'well I guess some cases just can't be solved' then goes fishing - has anyone else run into an ending that straight up invalidates the whole story like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

lucas636d ago

Fellow reader here, I feel your pain. That kind of ending is a straight up betrayal after you invested hours following clues and trying to piece things together. I found a 1960s mystery where the whole plot hinged on a secret twin nobody mentioned until page 198, and the detective just says "ah, that explains it" with zero buildup. Nothing makes you want to throw a book across the room faster than realizing the author wrote themselves into a corner and just gave up. Have you run into any other endings that made you feel completely cheated like that?

christopher_coleman176d ago

Saw someone talking about a book where the whole thing was just a dream the whole time. Detective wakes up on a train and that's it. Made me mad just hearing about it.