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...the sort that are good enough to go through again after the twist is revealed.
I vote for Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, an exceedingly dark mystery in which all the suspects die. The epilogue really blew my mind, years ago.
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I agree that ATTWN was a great book, but I'm pretty sure it was a fluke. Most of Christie's books (that I've read) were junk and I don't know why she's so popular. The last book of hers that I read was called Elephants Don't Forget... it was about a woman whose parents had been killed 25 years before the story opens, but the protagonist was only 19 years old. The whole book was full of that kind of error. I never read another of the Dame's books after that.
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I saw the stage version when I was about 11, and it blew me away. I was shocked. It was awesome.
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Try Stephen Saylor's 'Roman Blood'. It's the first in a long series of mysteries with a somewhat unreliably narrator, so most of the stories have at least one good twist.
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quote:Originally posted by Uprooted: Did rivka pay you to post this? ;-)
Nah. If I had it would have been pushing Orient Express.
quote:Originally posted by maui babe: Most of Christie's books (that I've read) were junk and I don't know why she's so popular. The last book of hers that I read was called Elephants Don't Forget... it was about a woman whose parents had been killed 25 years before the story opens, but the protagonist was only 19 years old. The whole book was full of that kind of error. I never read another of the Dame's books after that.
How many have you read? The book I think you mean, Elephants Can Remember is unquestionably one of her poorer novels (and not incidentally one of the last she ever wrote). However, you're wrong about the age discrepancy; the murder had taken place, according to a conversation early in the book, "well, I suppose, ten-- twenty years [ago] at least" (she's wrong; it was 12) and the young lady in question "she must be about twenty-five or -six" (and she's right about that, because it has been several years since Celia's 21st birthday).
Regardless, judging Dame Christie by one of her poorer novels cannot give you a good idea of what she was like in her prime.
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quote:Originally posted by Javert: Try Stephen Saylor's 'Roman Blood'. It's the first in a long series of mysteries with a somewhat unreliably narrator, so most of the stories have at least one good twist.
Seconded!
Those are the books I was trying to remember so I could add them to my goodreads.com list. Thanks!
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. I mean who woulda guessed Snape was Harry's father. Or that Ginny was adopted by the Beasley's and her brother Harry was given to his uncle to hide the fact that they were twins from searchers. Or that Snape would turn on Voldemort to protect Harry when Snape had previously blown off Harry's arm in a to-the-death wand duel.
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Last night I finished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
*Spoilers*
I've got to say, I was really disappointed with the twist at the end. I could remember that Moody was a fake and a bad guy (although I couldn't remember exactly who he was), but reading through it, I don't think JKR gave the reader enough of a chance to pick up on that. Yeah, there were some things with Moody that made more sense once you realized what was going on, such as Moody's attack the night before he started school and Moody asking to borrow the Marauder's map, but those were things that would have made sense if Moody were Moody as well. And there were things that Moody did, like work the kids so hard to learn how to fight the dark arts, the didn't seem to make sense. Why did he help Harry learn how to resist the imperious curse? It didn't help keep Harry safe for V..
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mph: Perhaps it was important to play the part of the real Mad Eye Moody to perfection. If he had been more lax and uninterested wouldn't that have raised an eyebrow from Mr. Dumbledore? From what I can tell, Crouch Jr. was supremely dedicated to Voldemort and spared no effort in executing his assigned tasks.
And ultimately Harry completely trusted him because his performance had been so good. Only a timely save by Dumbledore and Snape saved Harry from getting killed.
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Personally, I felt the threats from Snape directed to Harry about the stealing of certain potion ingredients (which fans may recall were the components of polyjuice potion) was a nice clue.
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I'd have to say the Sixth Sense. That one really caught me off guard. And it was before M. Night's other films, so no one (or at least I) didn't know what to expect.
Now, I think his next movie should have the uber-twist of NOT having a twist at the end.
Moody (actually Crouch) being a great teacher (in Harry's experience) but a bad person is one of my key supports in my belief that Snape is good. Quality of teaching does not equal quality of character in Rowling's world.
And back to the topic at hand: Jeffrey Deaver (The Bone Collector is probably his most famous book, since it was made into a movie) ALWAYS surprises me, even though by now I'm always expecting a surprise. His novels are far more horrific than Christie's, though, so be warned.
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Cool. You're back to doing this again. EXCELLENT. I like these sort of topics, despite being unable to think of any cool twists.... Maybe the one in American Gods. Now that was rather cool. But that's not a mystery. i should read more mysteries.
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I remember when I was a child and first read Valley of Fear, I don't think any twist has ever blown my mind like that.
Of course, I haven't read it in years, so I don't know how I'd like it today. But the first reading knocked me out.
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'The Thirteenth Tale' by Dianne Setterfield had a nice twist. Of course, it's technically not a mystery. Neither is 'Wolf Hunting' by Jane Lindskold. Now there's a book that blew me away at the end.
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I like The Universe by Lord Almighty. It turns out that the Universe was just a dream that God was having.
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Although this is an interesting thread, I can't help but wonder if I'm the only one who finds the wording of the title redundant. I mean, are there any mysteries that don't have, by some standard, a "twist ending?" Doesn't that sort of define the genre?
It sort of seems like putting together a list of best "speculative" science-fiction.
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quote:Originally posted by Speed: Although this is an interesting thread, I can't help but wonder if I'm the only one who finds the wording of the title redundant. I mean, are there any mysteries that don't have, by some standard, a "twist ending?" Doesn't that sort of define the genre?
"By some standard" is such a broad, ambiguous phrase. In the example I gave, the mastermind turned out to be someone who had "died" early on the book. I'd call that a "twist"...unlike, say, your typical Columbo mystery...where you know who did it right away...the mystery is in how long the suspect will hold out against Columbo's relentless picking and pestering. Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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I'd say that a twist happens when the solution is something you absolutely didn't see coming--either you already dismissed the character as the bad guy, or you never considered him or her...but this dismissal/ lack of consideration has to be for very good reasons, either based on clues OR your understanding of the conventions of mysteries. Then in order for it to be a good twist, and not just the author manipulating you, you have to be able to think back and in retrospect see all of the more subtle clues leading to the correct deduction.
The Ngaio Marsh books I've been reading lately don't have twists like that. It's pretty clear that the murderer is one of a few different people, & the fun is figuring out how & why more than who.
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I've read, oh, maybe 10-15 Agatha Christie novels. They're very nastily clever; I don't remember ever getting close to solving one.
I've got very mixed feelings about Christie books. She does write excellent mysteries, and her books give a great sense of their time and place... but she doesn't imbue her characters with much warmth; she writes about people as if they were bugs under glass. Because of this, I can't enjoy re-reading her books... whereas I've gone back and re-read Dorothy Sayers books many times.
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A couple of Lindsey Davis' novels are quite good with the twist ending (although in some I immediately guess who did it.) And there's one of Sharyn McCrumb's Ballad mysteries that has a great twist but I forget which one it is... Was it She Walks These Hills? I'd have to look it up.
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Anne Perry, "Belgrave Square". She writes Victorian mysteries, this is one of the Inspector Pitt series. Perry writes fascinatingly of the subtleties of Victorian upper class society. The ending of this BLEW ME AWAY! I audibly gasped at the 'reveal' in the last couple of pages. Really good read, and not just for the ending.
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plaid, have you read any of Christie's Tommy & Tuppence books? I think you might find them more to your taste.
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Before I even opened the thread, my first thought was And Then There Were None. I've never read any of her other stuff, though.
I read the book when I was really young, and I must have put it down before the epilogue. It was such a treat to read it again a couple of years later and find out what had actually happened.
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The whole book was full of that kind of error. I never read another of the Dame's books after that.
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