***Topic will contain spoilers for Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, Umineko (possibly up to Episode 8) and maybe Touhou***
There's apparently a Wii and PC version but I'll be playing through the book version. This is a game between me and the witch of 495 years. Prior to starting the game, the only thing I knew about the story are things revealed in Umineko and Touhou.
Chapter 1
This chapter mostly covers the introductions to the characters and how they end up on Indian Island. Justice Wargrave got a letter from a friend. Vera Claythorne got a job offer. Philip Lombard was hired for a client. Emily Brent is going for vacation. General Macarthur is going to meet old friends. Dr. Armstrong is there to see a patient. Anthony Marston seems to be going for fun. Blore is going for some sort of job and has a list of the other characters on him including two servants Mr. and Mrs. Rogers. He seems to be trying to decide on a fake identity. At this point I wasn't really sure if any of the characters introduced so far was the detective. Most of the characters got a letter sign by variations on the name U.N. Owen who I believe is supposed to be the culprit.
The location everyone is heading to is Indian Island a island off the coast of Devon. Indian Island used to be owned by an American millionaire Elmer Robson and he built a house on it. He ended up selling the island but no one seem to know who the new owner is.
Until I knew who the detective was, I'm not taking these introductions too seriously since they can all be lies.
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The characters start to gather together on their trip to Indian Island. Blore goes with the fake name Davis when introducing himself to everyone. Macarthur, Vera, Lombard, Emily, Wargrave and Blore are together and preparing to board to boat when Marston arrives. Fred Narracott drives the boat with the 7 passengers on it to Indian Island. Fred mentions that he's never met the Owens. On the island, everyone meets Mr. and Mrs. Rogers and are told the Owens won't arrive until the next day. Dinner is set for 8pm. Mrs. Rogers brings Vera to the room she will be staying in. The room is described as having 2 windows and a door to the hallway and a door to a bathroom. No descriptions of any locks are given. Mrs. Rogers says that her and Mr. Rogers only arrived on the island 2 days ago and have never met the Owens. In Vera's room she see the epitaph or poem I guess. Am I supposed to solve this? I never even got past step one of the epitaph in Umineko.
The poem: Ten little Indian boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine.
Nine little Indian boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight.
Eight little Indian boys traveling in Devon; One said he'd stay there and then there were seven.
Seven little Indian boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.
Six little Indian boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.
Five little Indian boys going in for law; One for in Chancery and then there were four.
Four little Indian boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.
Three little Indian boys walking in the Zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two.
Two little Indian boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one.
One little Indian boy left all alone; He went and hanged himself and then there were none.
I'm guessing the culprit is going to make the murders look like it follows this poem. Umineko discussed how this can be used to trick people and make them believe the murders happened in a different order than they really did or that someone is dead when they aren't. I wonder how much of that will hold here. The line "A red herring swallowed one and then there were three." sticks out to me. I'm not sure what the origin of the term "red herring" is but this could be it.
In the next scene, Dr. Armstrong arrives and the island and recognizes Wargrave and they talk for a bit. We also get a scene where Blore notices the poem over the mantelpiece before dinner starts.
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As dinner starts to end, the people discuss little figures in the middle of the table. There are 10 of them. This leads to everyone talking about the poem being in everyone's room. When dinner does come to an end, Beatrice's letter arrives in the form of a recording. The recording accuses the 10 people on the island of the following crimes: Edward George Armstrong killed Louisa Mary Clees Emily Caroline Brent killed Beatrice Taylor William Henry Blore killed James Stephen Landor Vera Elizabeth Claythorne killed Cyril Ogilvie Hamilton Philip Lombard killed twenty-one men, members of an East African tribe John Gordon Macarthur killed Arthur Richmond Anthony James Marston killed John and Lucy Combes Thomas and Ethel Rogers killed Jennifer Brady Lawrence John Wargrave killed Edward Seton
At this point Ethel faints. While she is being attended to Lombard finds the gramophone that played the message. Thomas admits to putting the record on but claims no prior knowledge of the contents and was just following orders in a letter. Armstong and Thomas bring Ethel to a different room to rest. Marston at this point wants to have a drink and finds some alcohol. Emily decline to drink while Armstrong, Ethel and Thomas are out of them room. Everyone else drinks. Armstrong and Thomas come back and everyone starts pooling information. They discuss the circumstances of coming to the island and the letters they got signed by UN Owen. Lambard is vague about the details and claims he ripped up the letter he got. Blore is called out for hiding his identity and admits to lying. He also seems to be the detective for the story.
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All of the discussion seems to suggest that UN Owen knows a lot about everyone in the room. Everyone begins to admit they had some sort of connection with the people they are accused of murdering but most claim they did nothing wrong or the deaths were an accident. Armstrong seems to believe Wargrave had a grudge of some sort against Seton who Wargrave sentenced to death. Vera was careless and let a child she was in charge of drown. Macarthur says Richmond died during a normal military operation during a war. Lombard admits that his accusation is true and he abandoned the people so he could live. Marston believes John and Lucy Combes and two people he killed in a car accident. Thomas says Brady was in bad health and due to complications they could get a doctor to her in time. It seems Thomas got an inheritance from Brady's death. Blore provided evidence that led to Landor's imprisonment and death. Armstrong killed Clees due to botching an operation due to being drunk but claims no knowledge of it. Emily refuses to give any information about Beatrice Taylor who will from now on be refer to as Taylor so she isn't confused with references to the other Beatrice. Thomas claims that there is no one on the island except the 10 known people. He also claims there are no boats on the island and they have to wait for Fred Narracott to come back with the boat in the morning to leave. Until that time, we've got a closed circle. Everyone agrees to leave the island tomorrow morning except for Marston who wants to try to solve the mystery. At this point Marston gulps down the rest of the drink and we've reached the First Twilight.
"Ten little Indian boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine."
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Armstrong declares that Marston and the cause of death is poisoning by a cyanide. Armstrong says there was poison in Marston's glass but none in the whiskey bottle or soda water on the table. Cyanide is an instantly active poison so it can't be a time delayed death without an extra trick. The characters conclude it was suicide but I don't believe it since this is mystery and that's a violation of Van Dine's 18th.
Right now I have no idea if Armstrong is a culprit so even if he says Marston is dead, he might not be. For the time being, I'm going to trust Armstrong and Marston is really dead. Armstrong didn't check one important thing. The ice. Earlier in the story Marston commented there was plenty of ice when talking about drinks. If the ice was spiked, anyone could have killed Marston. Emily was the only one who declined to have a drink. Assuming she isn't the culprit, I'm not sure how the culprit planned to avoid the spiked ice. Ethel was in another room and Thomas didn't seem to drink either but both are servants so by Van Dine's 11th they probably not culprits. Everyone would have died if all the ice was spiked so I think only some of it was. No clues have been given about marked ice as far as I can tell, though. This also likely means the person killed by the spiked ice is mostly random among the 10.
After all this, Marston's body is carried to his bedroom and covered with a sheet. Thomas goes to check on Ethel and claims she is alright. Everyone else heads upstairs while Thomas stays behind to clean up the dining table. Everyone ends up locking their door. Maybe we'll get a closed room murder next. Wargrave starts thinking back about the Seton trial and it seems to suggest that Wargrave was responsible for forcibly getting a guilty verdict. I'm not sure of the future relevance but it seems Wargrave has false teeth. At this point the scene cuts to Thomas in the dining room and he comments that there are no longer 10 figures. Perhaps he means there are 9 but he doesn't specify a number. We then go to Macarthur thinking about how he caught Richmond cheating with his wife and sent him to die intentionally. He seems to know Emily's uncle Tom Brent. The chapter closes with Vera thinking about Hugo, a person she loved, and how Cyril's birth meant Cyril would get an inheritance of some sort instead of Hugo. She also notices that Marston's death is in line with the first line of the poem.
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This chapter opens with Armstrong having a nightmare regarding his botched operation. At this point Thomas comes in to wake up Armstrong and tells him that Ethel won't wake up. Sounds like we're now up to the second twilight. Armstrong says he doesn't know the exact cause of death but suspects heart failure that is possible drug induced. Thomas says he wasn't aware of Ethel having heart problems. They can't find any sleeping pills in the room and Thomas says Ethel didn't eat anything last night.
I'm not sure what to make of this murder. Ethel was alone for a long period of time the previous night. Anyone could have gone to her room during this time and killed her. If sleeping pills could potentially be used as the poison, anyone could have brought them to the island for use. It's certainly a lot more common than cyanide.
Time passes until breakfast time. Everyone is looking for the boat to pick them up but it doesn't come. Blore seems to believe at this point that Marston didn't kill himself and tells this to Lombard. After breakfast, Armstrong breaks the news regarding Ethel's death. Armstrong mentions heart failure but claims to not know the cause of it. Blore seems to think it's possible that Thomas poisoned Ethel and destroyed the evidence. The chapter ends with Thomas showing Armstrong that only 8 of the figures on the dining table remain.
At this point Blore still hasn't explicitly seen Ethel's body. That means it's still possible that she's alive if Armstrong and Thomas are lying about the death.
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Vera and Emily are alone and talking to each other and Emily is of the opinion that Thomas and Ethel killed Brady. This leads to Emily talking about her alleged crime to Vera. Emily did know Taylor and probably was the reason Taylor jumped into a river to kill herself. Emily claims that it was entirely Taylor's own fault. Armstrong is also discussing the alleged crimes of everyone else with Lombard. It seems Thomas said Brady suffered from a heart condition and simply withholding medicine could have killed her. Lombard seems to be of the opinion that Wargrave abused his legal standing to sentence Seton to death despite thinking he was innocent. Another issue that comes up is the source of the cyanide that killed Marston. It requires premeditation to get so it doesn't fit with a spur of the moment suicide. Lombard and Armstrong continue to discuss the missing figures and the poem. Lombard suggests the existence of a 11th person X on the island and wants Armstrong to help look for them.
Blore isn't around so who knows how much of this is usable information. I doubt they'll find an 11th person who happens to be hiding on the island. Even if they do, we are 7 chapters in. By Knox's 1st, the person they find isn't going to be the culprit.
Chapter 8
Blore joins with Armstrong and Lombard. They believe that it was possible for someone to slip a drug into Marston's drink despite everyone watching. I guess this would be easier than messing with the ice as I originally suspected. It also means anyone could have been Marston's killer. The three search the island and naturally find no traces of an 11th person. They end up meeting Macarthur who claims there is no time left and doesn't want to be bothered. The three men continue their search but they need a rope to check for a cave in a cliff. At this point, Blore takes off to find some rope. The scene cuts to Vera meeting Macarthur. Macarthur admits to Vera that he really did send Richmond to his death. He also says everyone on the island will die. Blore meets back with Armstrong with some rope. Lombard went off the check on something and soon returns. Lombard uses the rope to look for a cave but as expected finds nothing. They head back to search the house. While on the second floor they see Thomas outside. After searching the bedrooms they head to the servants' room and find Thomas inside. No one noticed Thomas come upstairs. To me this seems like someone else can be mistaken for Thomas but I'm not sure who right now. Thomas is moving his stuff out of the servants's room. This room also has Ethel's body and Blore sees it for the first time. Armstrong is the one to show the body to Blore and once again says he doesn't know what drug was used. The three men finish searching the house and can't find person X.
I guess if Armstrong is lying, Ethel might still be alive even right now. Marston face went completely blue so may he still counts as dead even without Armstrong's autopsy. Armstrong being a culprit really makes a mess of things since I can't trust that the people he says are dead are really dead.
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Blore questions Armstrong about the possibility that he accidentally gave Ethel an overdose and Armstrong denies it. Blore also questions Lombard about the gun he carries. Lombard says he brought it since he was hired to deal with trouble on the island but believes this was a trick. It's now lunch time. Everyone except Macarthur comes in for lunch. Armstrong volunteers to get Macarthur while everyone else eats. Some time passes and Armstrong brings news of the third twilight. Macarthur is dead. Blore and Armstrong bring in the body into Macarthur's room. Everyone now gathers in the drawing room. Armstrong says the cause of death was a blow to the back of the head. Physical strength is not an issue, anyone here could have done it with the right tool. There is discussion to see if anyone had an alibi to any of the murders. They conclude that anyone could have poisoned Marston or went up to kill Ethel at night. No one was always with someone during the break so anyone could kill Macarthur as well.
It's not very clear if Macarthur's death is clear even to outsiders. Blore saw the body so he can at least confirm it is Macarthur's. If Armstrong can be trusted, Macarthur is dead for certain. If anyone could kill Macarthur then toss the weapon into the ocean, I don't think I can use this to narrow down who the culprit is.
Chapter 10
Lombard thinks Wargrave is the culprit while Vera thinks it's Armstrong. Armstrong is capable of fabricating autopsy reports to hide his murders. Armstrong has a chance to kill Macarthur when he left at lunch time to go get him and Armstrong gave Ethel something to eat. Blore has a culprit in mind while Thomas claims to have no idea who it is. Wargrave comments on how the current storm will last for at least 24 more hours and he seems to have a culprit in mind. Emily is writing in her diary that the culprit is TAYLOR-BEATRICE. Witches don't exist so I don't buy that. While everyone is in the living room, Thomas enters to say that a curtain in a washroom has gone missing. Dinner comes and goes. Emily and Vera head to their individual rooms and bolt lock the door. An hour later, Blore, Armstrong, Wargrave and Lombard enter and bolt lock their rooms. Thomas watches the 4 of them enter their rooms. I wonder if this time we'll get a closer room murder. Thomas notices that there are now 7 figures remaining while cleaning up. Thomas heads to his room and checks to make sure no one is hiding before bolt locking the door and going to sleep.
The missing curtain will definitely show up again but I don't know why it is missing. Emily or Vera could have snuck out of their room during the hour between when they looked like they were going to sleep and when the others went upstairs. While cleaning up, Thomas uses one key to lock several doors. It looks like he might have a master key. He checks for people hiding before locking the door. Could someone sneak in between him checking for hiding people and locking the door? Maybe they hid under the bed or in the washroom.
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Lombard just woke up and is waiting around in his room. Thomas doesn't show up like he normally does morning tea so Lombard leaves the room and goes to find Blore. Blore is in his room and just woke up. He doesn't know where Thomas is and Lombard says Thomas's room is empty. The two go looking for everyone else. Armstrong and Wargrave are in their rooms just waking up. Vera is also in her room but Emily isn't. when they go downstairs they meet Emily but she has no idea where Thomas is. The table is already set for breakfast and Vera notices there are now 6 figures on the table which suggests we are now at the fourth twilight. Thomas is found outside with a large axe wound to the back of the head. He was apparently chopping wood at the time of death. The murder scene may have been doctored, though. Blore can't find any fingerprints on the axe. Vera shows up and freaks out a bit and starts asking about bees which is a reference to the next line in the poem. Everyone goes back inside for breakfast. No one bothers to check for any master keys Thomas may have had on him. Blore talks to Lombard and admits that the accusation of perjury against him was true. Lombard seems to believe Blore has no chance at staying alive because he lacks imagination. During breakfast we are shown the thoughts of some people without saying who they are. One person seems to be thinking about how they lied to another person. I'm guessing this is a hint as well.
This is another murder that anyone seems to be capable of. Anyone could have snuck out during the morning and killed Thomas. I'm a bit worried about the identity of the corpse. Armstrong didn't do a through check of the body. Back in chapter 8, Blore thought he saw Thomas outside then he met Thomas in the servants' room without seeing Thomas come upstairs. I suspect that someone was disguised as Thomas and was the one they saw outside. This creates the possibility that this body isn't Thomas but a person who was disguised as Thomas. Blore was occupied with looking for fingerprints on the murder weapon and doesn't seem to have gotten a good look at Thomas's body either.
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Wargrave wants everyone to meet up together in half an hour. Everyone splits up from here. Vera, Blore and Lombard clean up and go their separate ways. Emily stays in the dining room since she feels a bit sick. Armstrong offers her medicine but she turns it down. Some time passes and everyone except Emily have now met up. Blore says he believes Emily is the culprit since she never gave an excuse after the gramophone recording. Vera tells everyone else that Emily told her what happened and she repeated it. Everyone goes to look for Emily in the dining room and find the victim of the 5th Twilight. Armstrong says the cause of death is cyanide poisoning and Emily was injected with the drug via a syringe. The death was immediate. At this point Vera notices a bee near the window to make things match the poem. Armstrong admits to bringing a syringe to the island. He bring everyone to his room to show where it is but it's missing. Armstrong claims it was stolen. Wargrave wants all the drugs like sleeping pills locked up along with Lombard's gun. Everyone hands over their drugs but Lombard's gun is missing. Everyone is searched along with their rooms but the gun can't be found. The drugs are locked in a chest in a cupboard. Lombard is given the chest key while Blore takes the cupboard key. I don't see how this helps if Thomas has a master key and it was stolen. Also the cyanide is most dangerous and it is still out there. Lombard said he had his gun last night but it was stolen at some point since then. Blore thinks he knows where the syringe is and bring everyone outside the dining room window. There they find the syringe and a broken figure and suspect the culprit through them out the window. They continue to look for the gun but can't find it.
I'm not too sure what to make of this murder. Once again it doesn't seem like I can rule out anyone as the culprit since everyone split up before the murder. I don't know who I can rule out regarding the thefts either. The drugs are locked away but I get the feeling they are going to be used without Blore or Lombard admitting to using their keys. I wish I knew id Ethel and Thomas had master keys or not.
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Unless some people faked their death, Wargrave, Lombard, Vera, Armstrong and Blore are the last ones alive. They all gather in one room and agree to only have one person leave the room at a time. When they need food, they all go to the kitchen and eat canned food. Vera offers to make some tea. Blore and Vera drink the tea while the other three have a drink. It's starting to get dark and the electricity doesn't work due to the generator not being maintained. Wargrave says he saw candles earlier and Lombard goes and gets them. Vera takes a candle and head for her room upstairs leaving the other 4 behind. In her room, someone dangled seaweed from the ceiling which catches her by surprise and causes her to scream. The others come running upstairs to see what the problem is. Blore offers Vera an opened brandy bottle but she turns it down. Lombard leaves and comes back with a new bottle. Only at this point does everyone realize that Wargrave isn't around. They rush downstairs and find the 6th twilight has passed. Wargrave's body is found in the room they used to be in together. Wargrave is dressed with a certain that went missing earlier and a wig. The cause of death was a bullet in the head and Armstrong says death was instantaneous.
This is a tough one to figure out. It doesn't seem like Vera had a chance to be the one to kill Wargrave. Lombard was by himself when he went to get a new bottle of Brandy. There's also the issue that no one heard Wargrave scream for help or the gun being fired. The last thing Wargrave said was that he saw some candles. Was it somehow dark enough at this time that the murder could be done before the candles were lit? It's still possible that there was a fake body earlier.
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Wargrave's body is carried to his bed room. Have they been doing this with all the bodies? I don't think they mentioned it for a few of them. The four confirmed living people go to the kitchen for dinner and discuss the murder. No one heard a gunshot yet there's a bullet in Wargrave's head. They suspect the noise was covered by the storm. Each of the four go to their own bedrooms and lock themselves in and bolt the door. At this point Lombard finds the revolver in his desk drawer. It would have to have been placed there between Wargrave's murder and everyone going to their rooms. Vera is in her room thinking about how she did trick Cyril into drowning. Blore is thinking about Landor and the revolver when he hears a noise outside his room. He leaves his room and chases a shadow downstairs and sees it leave the house. He decides to let it go and check upstairs for empty bedrooms. Vera and Lombard are still there but Armstrong's room is locked and no one replies. Lombard double checks this. Blore and Lombard leave to chase after the shadow that they now believe is Armstrong. Vera locks herself in her room. At this point, Lombard reveals to Blore that he has the revolver again and that he found it in his room. While Vera waits for Blore and Lombard to comeback, she hears the sound of breaking glass and clothing rustling. She then hears voices downstairs that sound like they are searching the lower floor then the rest of the house. Lombard and Blore get Vera to come out of her room and tell her that they can't find Armstrong anywhere. Not alive or dead. Blore and Lombard searched the island and house but found nothing. However a window did get smashed and there are now only 3 figured on the table.
Disappear does not mean dead. A missing figure doesn't mean death. Did they check Armstrong's locked room? It doesn't sound like they did to me. The rooms have windows. Someone could have gotten into Armstrong's room from the outside and that may have been the smashed glass Vera heard. Even if Armstrong's body shows up later it doesn't mean he was dead at this point.
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It's now morning and Vera, Lombard and Blore are eating canned food in the kitchen. The storm outside has passed but the seas are still rough. They try to signal for help but no one comes. They seem to think Armstrong's body was thrown into the ocean and that's why they can't find it. Lombard is questioned about his gun but he insists it was returned to him. Vera points out and questions to use of the term "red herring" in the poem line that corresponds with Armstrong's "death". Vera seems to think Armstrong is still alive and in hiding. The three search again for Armstrong but still find nothing. Currently they are outside and Blore heads back alone to the house to get food. Lombard tells Vera he is certain Armstrong isn't in the house or anywhere on the island. He think Blore killed and disposed of the body. Vera thinks Armstrong is the culprit. She also at this point admits to Lombard that she killed Cyril. They feel the ground shake and rush to the house. They find Blore with his head smashed in as the victim of the 8th twilight. This really surprised me. I was certain Blore would live to be in the final 2. So far I've believed that Blore was the detective. Maybe I'm wrong and there isn't on in the story. If he was, the rest of the events of the story are now in a cat box and can't be relied on. Blore's body is found outside the window to Vera's room. Lombard once again insists there are no hiding spots on the island. As they head away from the house. They find Armstrong's body washed up against some rocks.
With Armstrong out of the picture, deaths can't be confirmed anymore. However, can a crushed head and a face blue from drowning be faked? Vera and Lombard were together and it doesn't seem possible for Armstrong and Blore to have killed each other at the same time. Maybe the true culprit used Armstrong as bait to kill Blore and then disposed of Armstrong. I'm not entirely sure what the culprit is getting at with delaying the discovery of Armstrong's body.
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Two people left and naturally they both assume the other is the culprit. Vera suggests they try to bring in Armstrong's body to put it in the house with the others. Once again I'm wondering if they did this will all the bodies. This turns out to be a trick and Vera steals the revolver from Lombard. Lombard tries to get the gun back by force but Vera uses it to perform the 9th twilight. Lombard gets a bullet to the heart and dies instantly. Vera seems to snap at this point. She goes back into the house and there are still 3 figures on the table. She takes two of them and breaks them while keeping the third. She starts going upstairs and drop the revolver on the way. Also on the way up she seems to talk as if Hugo is already dead. She enters her room and finds a noose set up with a chair under it. Vera stands on the chair and kicks the chair away to complete the 10th twilight.
Welcome to the capital where the gold dwells everyone.
The scene cuts to some police officers reading a report about the events on Indian Island. 10 people were found dead on the island and there were no traces of a 11th living person. A doctor's report was given:
Wargrave was shot in the head. Lombard was shot in the heart. Emily died of cyanide poisoning. Marston died of cyanide poisoning. Ethel died of chloral overdose. Thomas's head was split open Blore's head was crushed. Armstrong died of drowning. Macarthur's skull has been fractured by a blow to the back of the head. Vera died by hanging.
The people living near the island say the only thing they know is that the island is owned by Mr. Owen.
That's all the help I'll get for trying to solve the mystery. The causes of death all match the causes of death in the story but who knows about the events leading to each death.
Right now I'm not sure what the point of the poem or figures were. Assuming Armstrong isn't the culprit, there's not much room for reordering the deaths or much point to slightly shifting the times of death. I'm sure I'm missing what the culprit was trying to do.
I've got a Servant+Doctor Culprit theory. Armstrong falsely declared Ethel was dead and Thomas's body was a fake. They have a falling out and end up killing each other after or around Blore's death. There is no through search of the island after Blore's death. The servants have master keys that let them enter locked rooms to hide in or steal things. The three are dead before Lombard dies. However, the exchange between Lombard and Vera occur as stated. This seems to easy, though. I guess I'll see how much I got right, if any.
My alternate theory is Flandre did it. >_>
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We actually get some red truth before the culprit is revealed. Isaac Morris is found dead and he was the one who helped UN Owen purchase Indian Island and hide his tracks. No one got off the island before it was searched. Armstrong died overnight. He didn't live to commit murder in the morning. Armstrong's body was moved after his death. The revolved was moved after Lombard's death. The chair Vera kicked aside was moved after her death. Blore would not commit suicide in the way he died. And that's finally all the help you get. A modification to my theory would be Armstrong and Thomas died overnight. Ethel rearranged things before killing herself.
Our Confession
I turned out to be completely wrong regarding the culprit. I was able to correctly determine that Armstrong helped the culprit by lying about an death but I couldn't figured out which he was lying about. The culprit followed the poem because it was something he liked not to hide anything in particular about the murders. He gathered people on to the island who he felt were guilty of murder but couldn't e brought the justice within the law. On the island he slipped cyanide into Marston's drink and an overdose of Chloral into Ethel's drink to kill them. While everyone was separated he snuck up behind and killed Macarthur. I should have noticed that there was one person on the island who Armstrong knew. If Armstrong was going to help someone it would have to be this person. The culprit attacked Thomas in the morning to kill him and stole the revolver from Lombard's room. He drugged Emily's drink to knock her out then injected cyanide to kill her after people had spread out. He hid the revolver then suggested a search of each person so he would look clean. At this point, Wargrave fakes his death with Armstrong's help. His body is carried to his room which would be his hiding place from then on. He met with Armstrong outside and pushed him into the ocean to kill him before he went back to the house and pretended to be a corpse again. When Lombard and Blore left, Wargrave the returned the revolver. In the morning when Blore came back for food, Wargrave killed him. Vera really did take the revolver and kill Lombard before hanging herself. At this point, Wargrave took the revolver and rearranged Vera's room. He tossed this confession in a bottle into the ocean. Finally he used a contraption to shoot himself in the head with the gun.
I was on the right track with figuring out that Armstrong had to have been helping the culprit but I didn't see it through all the way. I should have had more confidence in Van Dine's 11th and abandoned my theory that the servants were the culprit. I also should have had more faith in the detective's authority that a person can't just hide in a place without like Armstrong's room. Wargrave's murder really did seem fishy to me. I couldn't figure out how the culprit could get him to stay in the room and not come upstairs and to hide the gun shot sound. In the end it was because it was a fake murder. Hiding as a fake corpse is something I should have learned from Umineko. I wasn't able to win against the witch but it was still fun to play the game. I might play again to see what I missed the first time through.
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From: Team Rocket Elite | Posted: 12/30/2011 12:43:34 AM | #020 . I should have had more confidence in Van Dine's 11th
You...shouldn't, Van Dine and Christie were on bad terms. Well, I know that Dine criticized her in a few essays. Anyway, Knox and Van Dine are more like general guidelines. It's generally not a good idea to try to solve a mystery novel with Umineko's mindset because they have pretty different mindsets.
Ah, I didn't know that. I am aware that Knox and Van Dine are just guidelines but may have taken them more seriously than I should have. Some things from Umineko were definitely tripping me up. Especially some of the Purple Truth stuff from Bernkastel's game. I never even considered Armstrong could be helping the culprit without bring a culprit himself and did spend time trying to figure out who he may have personally killed. The problem is Umineko and Higurashi are pretty much the only mystery related things I've really looked at in the last decade so that's what I was trying to work with. I had seen the TV (Movie?) adaptation of Death on the Nile a long time ago but I don't really remember much about it.
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SuperNiceDog was not so nice to my bracket. Congrats to SuperNiceDog for winning the Rivalry Rumble Guru Contest!
It's a fun exercise anyway. I like to use Knox and Van Dine on mystery novels I read just to get a feel on them. For example, Carr's novels work with Van Dine's rules because you can tell that his tone of writing matches the idea that the puzzle must be worthwhile and etc. It's not a good way to actually solve anything or base your deductions around, but it's a fun habit to compare the rules to the novels just to see what kind of novel it is. Generally the answers you get when you ask yourself "does it look like the novel would follow this rule and why?" go a long way in solving them.