# Novels where the Solution to the Mystery or the Last Twist are given on Literally the Last Page **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 20, 2019, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911 "2019-02-20T18:49:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/1 "2019-02-20T18:49:42Z")
Novelists generally like to wind things down and give some last thoughts, but in some cases, the last, unexpected twist is given on the very last page. Or the mystery is solved on the last page (especially if you thought you already had the solution) And I mean _literally_ the last page – not just “near the end”. 1.) Frederick Forsyth – **The Devil’s Alternative** – takes too long to explain, but the final mystery is cleared up at the very end (I think that **the Day of the Jackal** has a last twist near the end, but not really on the last page. It’s in the last minute of the movie, though.) 2.) Anthony Berkeley – **the Poisoned Chocolates Case** – I first learned of this through Anthony Shaffer’s play _Sleuth_, where he called it “a tour de force with no fewer than six separate solutions.” I thought he made it up, until I stumbled across a copy of the book. There are actually more than six solutions, as a club of amateur detectives strives to solve a poisoning case. the first few solutions proposed aren’t very convincing, but they become more definite as the book progresses, and you become convinced that the current solution is the correct one, until some new fact dislodges it and a new solution must be found. It’s an interesting comment o the trustworthiness of evidence and the assumptions we make. The solution is given in the last freakin’ line on the last page. 3.) Edgar Rice Burroughs – **The Monster Men** – pulls a happy ending out of what appears to be a real mess at the very end. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/2 "2019-02-20T18:57:16Z")
_Rendezvous with Rama_ throws a twist in the very last line. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/3 "2019-02-20T19:07:58Z")
My copy’s packed away in a box somewhere, so I can’t easily check, but IIRC Carl Sagan’s _Contact_ ends (as in, the very last line) with a very significant piece of information. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/4 "2019-02-20T19:19:30Z")
A key part of the mystery in Ruth Rendell’s **Simisola** is revealed in the very last word of the book. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/5 "2019-02-20T19:25:06Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > A key part of the mystery in Ruth Rendell’s **Simisola** is revealed in the very last word of the book. Is that the book the author famously sent to the publishers with the last word omitted, and causing the publisher to demand the last word so he could understand the book? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/6 "2019-02-20T19:40:45Z")
In _The French Powder Mystery_ by Ellery Queen, the murderer’s name is not revealed until the last sentence. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/7 "2019-02-20T19:42:51Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Is that the book the author famously sent to the publishers with the last word omitted, and causing the publisher to demand the last word so he could understand the book? I don’t think so. The book still makes sense without the last word; it just ties everything up. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/8 "2019-02-20T19:53:42Z")
[The Day After Tomorrow](https://www.amazon.com/Day-After-Tomorrow-Allan-Folsom/dp/0446600415) ID’d the true nature of the maguffin in the last sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/9 "2019-02-20T20:50:19Z")
Mickey Spillane put the punch line in the last word of his novel _Vengeance Is Mine_. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/10 "2019-02-20T20:52:24Z")
Not a novel, but in H. Beam Piper’s ( no relation 😉 ) short story, “He walked Around the Horses”’ there’s a twist in the very last line that ties much of the rest together. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/11 "2019-02-20T20:55:58Z")
**Nineteen Eighty-Four** ends with a final line that legitimately stunned me. **Sphere** by Michael Crichton ends, I believe, with a final line that makes you realize that what you thought happened did not happen. They made a terrible movie out of it and removed the final twist that the last sentence threw at us. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/12 "2019-02-20T21:06:04Z")
I don’t have a copy on hand to check, but it seems to me [The Hike](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0399563873/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0) by Drew Magary got in a devastating blow right at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/13 "2019-02-20T22:24:03Z")
How about Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/14 "2019-02-20T23:16:04Z")
Robert Silverberg’s **Up the Line** ends with the protagonist, a rogue time traveler, hiding out in the distance past and wondering whether the time authorities will simply erase him from existence, when suddenly the book just stops in the middle of the ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/15 "2019-02-20T23:51:30Z")
The end _of The Riddle Master of Hed_ completely blindsides the protagonist Morgan, revealing both that he’s been massively betrayed and the "High “One” he’s come to see is someone entirely different. To make an analogy from another setting, it would be as if Gandalf led the Fellowship of the Ring to meet Galadriel, only when they meet in Lothlórien it is revealed on the last page that she was actually Sauron in disguise all along and Gandalf was always working for Sauron. _Then_ the book ends. A bit of a cliffhanger, there. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/16 "2019-02-21T02:02:38Z")
Future War…kinnnnnda ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/17 "2019-02-21T03:46:14Z")
everything ever wrote by O.Henry…… ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/18 "2019-02-21T04:14:56Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > My copy’s packed away in a box somewhere, so I can’t easily check, but IIRC Carl Sagan’s _Contact_ ends (as in, the very last line) with a very significant piece of information. Is that the same one they had in the movie (don’t remember if it was the very end or if it came before the “several years later” windup)? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/19 "2019-02-21T04:27:50Z")
I was going to mention _The French Powder Mystery_, but Exapno Mapcase ninja’ed me. Several Doc Savage novels, including _The Squeaking Goblin_ and _Devil on the Moon_ end with the villian being revealed in the last couple of paragraphs or sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/20 "2019-02-21T14:57:54Z")
Roald Dahl’s classic tale [Lamb to the Slaughter](http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lamb.html) has a twist ending. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911.md?page=2)