Carr is consistently good. Once, in the novel “The Reader Is Warned,” he already used the “honest magician” trick: at key moments Carr would add a footnote—“Pay attention to this detail” or “The witness is lying.” In “Nine Wrong Answers,” the reverse method is used: “The described scene is NOT a conspiracy against the hero,” “The character did NOT commit suicide—he was poisoned by a certain someone.”
Despite these very cleverly phrased hints, finding the solution to the crime before the author serves it to you on a silver platter is hardly possible. Even when you think you’ve managed to locate the answer by applying exceptional strength of mind and logic, the next moment the author turns everything upside down. And in the end the explanation turns out so simple that you can’t understand how you managed to miss what was right under your nose.