The False Inspector Dew

This 1982 novel shows up on a lot of best-of lists for mysteries, and up until the final page, I was in agreement with that. This is a very funny, twisty murder mystery that never gets boring. And then, in the final moments, there is one more big twist that absolutely does not make sense. At least not to me. I have read other reviews that talk about the very clever ending but none of them explain exactly how it's plausible. The upshot is that last pages don't usually ruin books for me but when it's a mystery then last pages absolutely do matter.

If anyone's read this, and has an opinion, please let me know.

And while I'm here, and while I'm on the subject of endings, I just finished watching Top of the Lake, Jane Campion's detective miniseries on Sundance Channel that stars an absolutely stunning Elisabeth Moss.

It was an interesting series, one in which I found myself struggling through some of the subplots, but hanging in because of Moss's portrayal of a deeply broken police detective looking for a missing pregnant twelve-year-old girl. But for all its meandering, and this series definitely meandered, the last fifteen minutes were absolutely perfect. One of the best thriller endings I've seen, and made all the more shocking by the looping way in which the writers get you there.