Do Some Damage discussion

I thought the Gilmore consideration at the end was particularly well done. Reading it, I wondered if it was too early for him to be the real killer. You know, like when they catch the suspect too early in CASTLE or MONK or whatever and you know it isn't that person. Still, I was getting convinced. Great to see Terry doubt everything.

Grey as a killer was a little weird, but I liked the Gilmore consideration too. Guy looked pathologic throughout the whole book. Had him pegged for the killer early buuuuuuuuuuuuuut no.

Honestly I was disappointed w/ Grey being the killer, maybe because I liked his character and would've liked to see him carry on in future Rand family novels.

Thanks for the comments, folks, appreciate them all. The toruble with "mysteries" (and I'm not really a mystery writer, and this isn't really a mystery novel) is that you have to pepper clues along the way and throw in a few red herrings, and anybody who's ever read a mystery is going to be looking for this sort of thing. There was a fun Family Guy bit about how the killer on Murder She Wrote was always the most famous guest star. When folks go looking for the twist they're more likely to find it.

Robert B. Parker once gave a signing talk for PAPER DOLL explaining how he was 380 pages into the book when he finally decided on who the killer was. In that particular novel it sort of shows. The big "clue" doesn't pop up until page 379 and so you're stuck with the ah ha moment very late in the story. I tried to avoid that sort of thing although various folks seem to be having various reactions to the solving of the puzzle.