Griping about a mystery I just read

Submitted by soundisloud t3_yhw3mb in books

So I just finished a book in a decently-regarded mystery series. These are like Agatha Christie-style mysteries where an amateur sleuth gathers clues and solves a crime while the police bumble about.

Except in this book, the sleuth never solves the crime. The police do! After 400 pages of this sleuth doing detective work, the police are like "Actually we know who did it. Their fingerprints were at the scene, they were spotted at all the relevant places, and they had a motive.". What?? None of this had been mentioned before. They had fingerprints? It was set up like some revelation but if the police had fingerprints, why did anything else matter?

Why did I read about her gathering clues for the last 400 pages? The case would have been solved even if she'd never been there. She was completely irrelevant. That so misses the point of this genre. Kind of laughable if it wasn't such a letdown.

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jess2888 t1_iugobge wrote

I have to admit, that's a twist I wouldn't expect.

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snark_attak t1_iujndme wrote

I guess it would depend on how the story develops whether I would be amused or disappointed by an ending like that. If there were comedic elements throughout, and we got the sense that the protagonist was not really a good detective (and/or an unreliable narrator, if from a 1st person POV). I kind of like the idea of taking the trope of a brilliant amateur detective who is much more competent than the police, and turning it on its head. As I said, though, it depends on the execution.

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StoneTwin t1_iugkuoo wrote

Maybe it wasn't a mystery, but a vicarious tale of a wanna-be detective?

For people that want to imagine they are someone that isnt really good at their chosen hobby?

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_Cereza t1_iuh8wgx wrote

I'd be pretty pissed if I were you lol. What a total waste of time. Why would you ever think as an author that that is a good idea for a "twist" or just how to end the book?

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C4-BlueCat t1_iuhw6ty wrote

There’s an entertaining detective story about the prince of wales(?) being a wannabe detective in that style and being confidently incorrect as people are murdered around him.

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