We’re so close to the end of Turnabout Big Top. We have proven the means and the opportunity for our primary suspect, Acro, to commit the crime. All we need now is to pin down his motivation.
And there we have it: Our motive has been established. It was, in fact, as someone in my chat put it, “a comedy of errors” that led to the deepest tragedy. As is often the case in murder mystery fiction, misinterpretations and miscommunications lead to irrevocable consequences.
I’ve seen objections to the way Acro titled his note “To The Murderer” and not “To Regina”, chiefly because as someone who has lived with Regina and the other circus performers for most of his life, he should know that she would probably think it wasn’t her the note was referring to.
I don’t disagree that if he was a logical actor if the real world, that point would have merit. However, as a fictional entity in a murder mystery, this is an excellent story beat. It gives us something to mull over as we investigate the crime and his motive for committing it. Additionally, the argument assumes he is acting rationally, when he is about to murder someone in cold blood that he knew wasn’t hostile or threatening when talking would’ve easily solved this problem. Merely resorting to murder in this situation with such low stakes implies extremely irrational thinking, something Acro would no doubt agree with since he later regrets his decisions.
While we’ve spent far longer on Turnabout Big Top than I ever intended to, I don’t think it’s as bad a case as people make it out to be. Next time, we’ll truly wrap it up with decisive evidence, and move on to the final case of Justice For All.
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