Source link : https://las-vegas-news.com/4-famous-mystery-novels-where-the-author-admitted-they-didnt-know-the-killer-until-the-final-chapter/
Most readers assume a mystery writer works backward. The culprit is chosen first, the clues are laid second, and the final reveal is the last brick in a wall that was planned from the foundation up. Some of the genre’s best known authors say it doesn’t work that way for them.
Direct admissions about one specific book are rarer than the general claim, so the four entries below are sourced carefully. Some are about a single novel, and some are about a method that shaped a novel. Where the evidence is partial, the article says so.
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Big Sleep is a 1939 novel, and it has a famous loose end. The police find the Sternwoods’ chauffeur, Owen Taylor, dead inside a car that went off a pier. The book explains plenty, including Geiger’s blackmail and Taylor killing him, but Taylor’s own death stays murky.
During the 1946 film, the story goes that neither Hawks nor his screenwriters knew the answer, so they cabled Chandler. Chandler later told a publisher in a letter that he didn’t know either. Some people doubt the anecdote, though a 1949 letter from Chandler mentions the telegram, so it probably happened. It’s a side murder rather than the main reveal, but it’s still the best documented case of an author shrugging at his own plot.
Standing in Another Man’s Grave by Ian Rankin
Ian Rankin…
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Author : Matthias Binder
Publish date : 2026-11-12 10:31:00
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