SPOILER: The Endings of Twenty Great Mysteries

by Rob Lopresti

• The statue was a fake. The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett
• The doctor killed his patient. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie
• The head of the FBI comes to visit, but isn’t allowed in. The Doorbell Rang. Rex Stout
• The child is returned to her mother. Gone Baby Gone. Dennis Lehane
• The older cop asks the younger cop for spiritual advice. A Thief Of Time. Tony Hillerman
• The hero reluctantly agrees to play golf with his sidekick. Back Spin. Harlan Coben
• The hero leaves New York for Los Angeles. Such A Killing Crime. Robert Lopresti^*
• The hero prevents time travel from being invented. (Yes, it is a mystery.) Time And Time Again. Jack Finney
• The villain drowns in the mire. The Hound Of The Baskervilles. Arthur Conan Doyle
• The villain is shot by the police and dies crawling forward, as if to attack his enemy one last time. Stronghold. Stanley Ellin
• The swindled thieves make a deal with their client’s enemy. The Hot Rock. Donald E. Westlake
• The client’s wife comes home. Promised Land. Robert B. Parker
• The spies tried to squash the rumor that there was a mole in their midst to protect the enemy spy who was working for them, but there really was a mole in their midst. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. John LeCarre
• The femme fatale shoots a cop and the police shoot her dead. Farewell My Lovely. Raymond Chandler
• A policeman shoots the narrator dead. Killing Time. Donald E. Westlake
• The detective frames the killer for what was actually a suicide. When The Sacred Ginmill Closes. Lawrence Block
• The judge did it. And Then There Were None. Agatha Christie
• The detective did it. Curtain. Agatha Christie
• The client’s evil twin did it. Mary Mary. Ed McBain
• All the suspects did it. Murder on the Orient Express. Agatha Christie
• Raskolnikov did it. Crime and Punishment.   Feodor Dostoyevsky

^* Robbie said if a shamus was going to reveal endings, he ought to include his own. Hence, he modestly says "twenty-one endings for twenty great mysteries."

– Velma