# 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:** 2
**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 21, 2019, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/21 "2019-02-21T16:41:59Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Roald Dahl’s classic tale [Lamb to the Slaughter](http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lamb.html) has a twist ending. a.) It’s a short story b.) Is it on the last page? I’m not looking for a listing of simple Twist Endings. we’d be here forever. I’m looking for cases of long stories (“novels”, the OP says) where the twist/solution/whatever appears on the very last page (ideally the last paragraph, sentence, or word) without any follow-up or wind-down. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/22 "2019-02-21T17:11:14Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > 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.) I can’t remember if the twist in **Dogs of War** was on the last page but if not it wasn’t more than a page earlier. ---
**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 21, 2019, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/23 "2019-02-21T23:30:11Z")
I don’t think the _Contact_ final twist made it into the movie at all. I’ll have to remember the next time I see it, and when come back, bring. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/24 "2019-02-22T03:05:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t think the _Contact_ final twist made it into the movie at all. I’ll have to remember the next time I see it, and when come back, bring. Nope, not in the movie. I was really disappointed with that, but it would be hard to explain to someone without a mathematical background. Another good example is the end of the novel Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle. Not to give away his original ending except to say there’s more to the story beyond what the movie has. I believe it is actually the very last line. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/25 "2019-02-22T21:28:50Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > a.) It’s a short story > b.) Is it on the last page? > > I’m not looking for a listing of simple Twist Endings. we’d be here forever. I’m looking for cases of long stories (“novels”, the OP says) where the twist/solution/whatever appears on the very last page (ideally the last paragraph, sentence, or word) without any follow-up or wind-down. I have this story in an anthology, so it may vary depending on where you read it, but in this one, I’d said the twist is on the second to last page. ---
**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 22, 2019, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/26 "2019-02-22T23:07:42Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t think the _Contact_ final twist made it into the movie at all. I’ll have to remember the next time I see it, and when come back, bring. > [@JohnGalt](#): > > Nope, not in the movie. I was really disappointed with that, but it would be hard to explain to someone without a mathematical background. So it’s not the fact that her personal recorder (or something like that) had 45 minutes of static, even though the event lasted less than one second in local time? I think that was mentioned in a private conversation near the end of the movie, after the congressional hearing. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2019, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/27 "2019-02-23T01:32:35Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > So it’s not the fact that > > [SPOILER]her personal recorder (or something like that) had 45 minutes of static, even though the event lasted less than one second in local time? > > [/SPOILER] I think that was mentioned in a private conversation near the end of the movie, after the congressional hearing. I was thinking about the thing that involves the number pi. Certainly not in the movie but totally nerdy. ---
**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 23, 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/829911/28 "2019-02-23T02:02:52Z")
What **Roderick Femm** mentioned is in the movie, and proves that the aliens really were communicating with us. What the book ends with proves something much, much bigger. ---
**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 23, 2019, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/29 "2019-02-23T03:58:55Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What **Roderick Femm** mentioned is in the movie, and proves that the aliens really were communicating with us. What the book ends with proves something much, much bigger. I guess I’ll have to read it then. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2019, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/30 "2019-02-23T21:17:52Z")
Sharyn McCrumb’s novel _Prayers the Devil Answers_. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2019, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/31 "2019-02-25T14:03:39Z")
I have it in ebook form, so it depends on how big your pages are. It may be a front and back page, but it’s close enough to the end that I’d count it _Who Censored Roger Rabbit_ (the book the movie is based on). The main case–who killed Roger Rabbit’s boss–is revealed only in the last few paragraphs. Of course, like much of detective fiction, the astute reader could have figured it out. The mystery in the title, on the other hand, I don’t think a reader could figure out. At most, they might guess. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 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/829911/32 "2019-02-25T19:07:26Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What **Roderick Femm** mentioned is in the movie, and proves that the aliens really were communicating with us. What the book ends with proves something much, much bigger. Now that you have teased us, can you write a spoiler and let us know? I couldn’t find a synopsis of the story, and I’m curious. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2019, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/33 "2019-02-25T19:58:21Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > 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. Yeah to say the least. I read Riddlemaster, years ago. We didn’t have the other two books in the trilogy. This was decades before the internet. It took me years to find out what happened next. ---
**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 25, 2019, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/34 "2019-02-25T20:06:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **clairobscur** : > > Now that you have teased us, can you write a spoiler and let us know? I couldn’t find a synopsis of the story, and I’m curious. The aliens she meets tell her that they, too, are receiving messages from a power higher than themselves, but the messages they’re getting are not transmitted by radio, but encoded in fundamental mathematics, as, for instance, in the digits of pi. So after the mission, Arroway commissions some supercomputer time to calculate umpteen-many digits of pi, and does indeed find a (very simple) message in them (far more quickly than a message of that length could be expected in the digits of a normal number). Thus implying that there exists an entity or entities capable of manipulating even the laws of mathematics. In other words, God. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2019, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/35 "2019-02-25T20:07:52Z")
Ah! Neat idea. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2019, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/36 "2019-02-25T20:36:46Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > In _The French Powder Mystery_ by Ellery Queen, the murderer’s name is not revealed until the last sentence. True, but the entire chapter before it is explaining all the logic behind the accusation. It’s just that it doesn’t flat out say the name of the character it’s describing until that last sentence. I feel like it’s kind of a weird, borderline inapplicable, example for that reason. But that’s subjective, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/37 "2019-02-26T18:28:47Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > _Rendezvous with Rama_ throws a twist in the very last line. To be fair, that last line is foreshadowed. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/38 "2019-02-26T22:03:02Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > 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. Not a mystery, but certainly a twist - [**A Boy and His Dog**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Boy_and_His_Dog) by Harlan Ellison ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/39 "2019-02-26T22:12:26Z")
Pretty sure that Harlen Coben’s “Tell No One” did this. ---
**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 27, 2019, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-where-the-solution-to-the-mystery-or-the-last-twist-are-given-on-literally-the-last-page/829911/40 "2019-02-27T00:30:42Z")
Or on the other hand, there’s Asimov’s _Foundation_, where he put the answer to the Big Mystery in the prologue… and still had fans going crazy trying to figure it out for years until the sequel came out. [Previous 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=1)