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How often have you figured out 'Whodunnit'? Are you as good as Dresden?(summer knight spoilers, to start)

#1 User is offline   Tarcanus 

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Posted 21 April 2010 - 01:52 PM

As in the Topic subtitle thingy, thar shall be spoilars here! Read at your own risk if you haven't read up through Summer Knight.



I've just finished Summer Knight - the best book in the series yet, imo. I love the depictions of faerie culture and attitudes.

The thing is, though, is that this was the first book in which I was able to place my finger on the culprit early on, the first time Harry ran into her. When Harry first met Aurora it raised the hairs on the back of my neck and made me wonder how, in a world where everything is trying to kill Harry, this one being is trying to soothe him - it must be a plot to point Harry in the wrong direction! Turned out I was right.

My question to you is: How often have you been able to figure out the culprit before Harry does?
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#2 User is offline   Use Of Weapons 

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Posted 21 April 2010 - 04:17 PM

It's not a question of 'being able' for me. I choose not to make the attempt, preferring to experience the twists the author intended.

Of course, I could just be dumb.
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#3 User is offline   rhulad 

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Posted 21 April 2010 - 05:12 PM

I also tend to stick with the "head in sand" approach as I think it makes for a more enjoyable read.
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#4 User is offline   caladanbrood 

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Posted 21 April 2010 - 06:58 PM

Well I've only read the first three, but I've been fairly certain about the culprit before it was revealed each time. Don't know if that's before Harry works it out though. Do they get more mysterious later in the series?

Personally, I love trying to work out the answers when I'm reading any mystery or detective novels (or films, tv programmes etc). Especially if I get it right, it's very satisfying, and it means that they've been written well enough to give you all the necessary clues, which is much better than when they end up revealing a last vital piece of information that hasn't even been hinted at before.
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#5 User is offline   Tarcanus 

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Posted 21 April 2010 - 07:10 PM

View Postcaladanbrood, on 21 April 2010 - 06:58 PM, said:

Well I've only read the first three, but I've been fairly certain about the culprit before it was revealed each time. Don't know if that's before Harry works it out though. Do they get more mysterious later in the series?


I'm not sure how much more mysterious they get, as I only just started the 5th book, but in the 4th, a couple clues that Butcher leaves struck a dissonant chord in my head along the lines of, "hey, this seems different, somehow" which made me start suspecting who was in that scene.

I don't think it takes away from the excitement of the book when you have a strong suspicion of who it is because you still don't know how Harry will come around and figure it out.
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Posted 21 April 2010 - 07:36 PM

Speaking generally and without spoilers, there are a couple of books where the whodunnit (where those books were 'whodunits as opposed to 'find the person/widget or 'stop the bad guys') ' is fairly obvious early on and it's more 'how and why' that are interesting. I think i've caught on early maybe twice in the whole series to date, Summer Knight being one of those.


As a related aside, the finale of SK - 'I don't believe in faeries!' - was the moment i decided that i absolutely love this series.
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#7 User is offline   Animace 

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Posted 01 May 2010 - 04:48 AM

Reading this series I developed a bad habit -

When it gets to the end of the chapter, and I start reading the page, I have to consciously restrain myself from reading the last few lines in the chapter so its more enjoyable.

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#8 User is offline   Salt-Man Z 

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Posted 03 May 2010 - 09:42 PM

I've actually noticed that with my reading, in general. If I hit an interesting development, my eyes will start flicking down the page (and often onto the next) looking for names or revelations. It's a bad habit, and especially dangerous with the Dresden books.
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#9 User is offline   End of Disc One 

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Posted 03 May 2010 - 10:50 PM

When I get to a good part I have to use my bookmark to cover up the text below the line I'm reading. I'm pretty bad about looking down.
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#10 User is offline   spiral 

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Posted 17 May 2010 - 08:50 PM

I've only read storm front. I suspected 'whodunnit' fairly early on, but I wasn't pushed about knowing and in any case I wasn't certain. I just loved the book. I liked the pace and the wit I was frustrated at times at how Harry insists on making life hard for himself, its intriguing. Today my wife bought me the next 4 :D

I never look down. My bad habit is reading a few lines or even a page or two from the book before I even start it, I usually do it the day I get the book(s).
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#11 User is offline   Salt-Man Z 

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Posted 25 May 2010 - 03:16 PM

I'm generally not able to guess whodunnit. I have a hard time keeping up with the twists and turns, and frankly I don't really care.

However, I'm just finishing up Turn Coat, and I'm pretty disappointed that I had it figured out halfway through the book. I mean, come on:
Spoiler

I actually reached a point where I thought, "If it ends up being _________, I'm going to be very disappointed." It did, and I was. Fortunately, the book was awesome enough that that didn't spoil my enjoyment of it at all.
"Here is light. You will say that it is not a living entity, but you miss the point that it is more, not less. Without occupying space, it fills the universe. It nourishes everything, yet itself feeds upon destruction. We claim to control it, but does it not perhaps cultivate us as a source of food? May it not be that all wood grows so that it can be set ablaze, and that men and women are born to kindle fires?"
―Gene Wolfe, The Citadel of the Autarch
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#12 User is offline   acesn8s 

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Posted 26 May 2010 - 05:30 PM

I rarely figure it out because I'm in too much of a rush to find out "what happens to next" to take a moment to reflect on what I just read.
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#13 User is offline   Imperial Historian 

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Posted 26 May 2010 - 05:53 PM

Quote

However, I'm just finishing up Turn Coat, and I'm pretty disappointed that I had it figured out halfway through the book. I mean, come on:
Spoiler


I actually reached a point where I thought, "If it ends up being _________, I'm going to be very disappointed." It did, and I was. Fortunately, the book was awesome enough that that didn't spoil my enjoyment of it at all.


Spoiler


That said I generally don't read dresden for the whodunnits, more for the howdunnit, which is much more entertaining. harrys responses to events are nearly always much more interesting than whodunnit.
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#14 User is online   Cause 

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Posted 10 August 2010 - 11:42 AM

View PostAbyss, on 21 April 2010 - 07:36 PM, said:

Speaking generally and without spoilers, there are a couple of books where the whodunnit (where those books were 'whodunits as opposed to 'find the person/widget or 'stop the bad guys') ' is fairly obvious early on and it's more 'how and why' that are interesting. I think i've caught on early maybe twice in the whole series to date, Summer Knight being one of those.


As a related aside, the finale of SK - 'I don't believe in faeries!' - was the moment i decided that i absolutely love this series.


I think in some of the books its impossible to work out who done it till the very end when Dresden makes some leap of logic sometimes based on supernatural knowledge that only he could know.

For me the moment I fell in love with the books was when Generous Toot Toot screamed out his battle cry, 'For the pizza lord'
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