Rex Stout - solved!

We-e-e-ell!

Today I solved my first Rex Stout mystery! Yep. A few pages before the final unveiling, I really did solve it. Can you believe it? It happened like this:

I thought to myself, "Oh, I hope it's not ----." But I was almost sure that it would be, and not just because he seemed unlikely, or some other Murphy's Law reason. Then I stopped reading for a moment, and asked myself, "Why do I think that?" It was an impression, one I'd been sort of having for awhile, but for no good reason I knew of. I just didn't want that character to be the villain. Why was I afraid he would be?

So, I thought about that, and finally realized what his motive could have been. And... wow, I was right! It was compensation for having a character I liked turn out to be the villain.

However, this moment of good fortune isn't one I plan to try repeating. I've always thought guessing 'who dun it' to be a hopeless task with these books, and, worse, one that would ruin the fun of them. Personally, I think the characters are usually difficult to remember the names and faces of, so I would normally not try that. This time the characters names weren't quite as difficult, and the characters themselves were pretty distinct. I suspect that helped. :)