MobileRead Spring Contest - The Winners!

[LCF]

WOW! And then: WOW!!! I am officially declared "outstandingly entertaining" by MobileRead. It's like Freddie Mercury coming down from Heaven to tell me how awesome I sing.

I'll post my answer later.

[LCF]

Like now

Hello dear Moderators.

Before I forget - it's LCF.



Now, I narrowed down the suspects to the three most probable.

PilotBob
mtravellerh
Nekokami.

Some of my observations: (Answer is at the bottom, if you want to scroll fast.)

PilotBob has a Penguin avatar - should be the seen penguin from the story.

MTH wipes dust from the readers before the murder, says PilotBob.

BUT Zippy (brilliant btw, great nickname for the nickname)wipes dust from there too. So, if they war cleaned a few hours before - why should she do it? She might just pretend doing it of course, because she's actually eavesdropping.

So, PilotBob lies. That's not really perfect, because he also states, that MTH wouldn't lie. Is he actually lying then? I am just assuming, that PilotBob lies SOMETIMES, but most of the rest is true (otherwise it would be disproved too easily). So MTH says just the truth, which means, he didn't do it.

Assumption it wasn't MTH.

Leaves PilotBob as the most plausible answer. But... I don't like it. Too obvious. Everybody says "there was a penguin" or "a man with a compass", and then the penguin turns out to be a killer. Either too easy for a detective story, or too complicated (because all the smart asses are going to assume it can't be the penguin, being blamed so often). Also, most of the references say, that he did *see* the crime. Not *did* it.

Here is a good place to state, that I'm believing Rock Lobster. Means, I assume everything he said in the last chapter is true. And that's how the jacket could be explained - a cover for the crowbar and then for the stolen reader).

But, unfortunately for him, pshrynk gets seen prying the box with the crowbar. By Nekokami. Which "opposes violently to violence". And kind of goes berserk and kills pshrynk. With the crowbar. After that she hides her head into a bag and everyone has to sing the song. From here comes the "Again." Zelda adds.

PilotBob is a witness. He sees what happens and decides he will help Nekokami. He breaks his own Nook and "gives" it to the body of pshrynk. It is also possible, that MTH is involved too, helping him. A lot of holes o be filled, but still the best I can come with. And, frankly, a can't think anymore due to lack of sleep this whole week, so

I was just going to post Nekokami (this is still not my answer!), when I saw a new message from Rock Lobster. And remembered the timing line, that didn't quite fit.
I mean, how does Zippy ( ) knows, she has to go back in her time? And did she only got back to clean, or did she commited the murder while in the time wrap?

I just read the place(s) 5 times. It still doesn't quite fit. But Nekokakmi's ignorance doesn't quite fit too.

So, before I doze off again and wake up to find out I haven't sent my answer in time - here it is:

Nekokami. (Nothing personal!!) She's just too good to be true.

I am really curious to see the real answer tomorrow!

Thanks for the great mystery! I hope you enjoyed the twisted ways of my logic and got a laugh or eleventy.

LCF

[SneakySnake]

Originally Posted by omk3

.....

CONGRATULATIONS
to ALL the winners!!

An enormous THANK YOU
to MobileRead for organizing the most entertaining and creative contests ever, and to the very generous sponsors!

And...and...I'm lost for words. You guys... you actually went and got more prizes...for outstandingly entertaining entries... and one of them was for me?

That goes to show how amazing this place is... Really... A huge thank you to all!

What can I say. omk3 has said everything that I would say and probably the way I would say it. So me being the lazy snake that I am ....

[cu_cannon]

Wow!! I actually won something!

I'm new to the board and I already have a win under my belt. Maybe I can make it into a streak. Ipad here I come.

Thanks to everyone at modileread for making such a great contest!

[Katti's Cat]

Congratulations to all Winners. :-)

[desdemona]

Oh, my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! I've never won anything before in my life! This was so much fun!! Honestly, just figuring out the answer made me feel enough like a winner.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by LCF

WOW! And then: WOW!!! I am officially declared "outstandingly entertaining" by MobileRead. It's like Freddie Mercury coming down from Heaven to tell me how awesome I sing.

I'll post my answer later.

congratulations lcf ! yet more proof you deserve this prize.

Originally Posted by cu_cannon

Wow!! I actually won something!

I'm new to the board and I already have a win under my belt. Maybe I can make it into a streak. Ipad here I come.

Thanks to everyone at modileread for making such a great contest!

Originally Posted by desdemona

Oh, my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! I've never won anything before in my life! This was so much fun!! Honestly, just figuring out the answer made me feel enough like a winner.

congratulations cu_cannon and desdemona ! enjoy your prizes. we're so glad you had fun with this contest ; that's the most important thing, after all. cu_cannon, good luck with that ipad. of course, i think i saw pshrynk heading over in that direction with something hidden behind his back, and he was looking pretty shifty (more than usual, i mean), so i'd try to keep an eye on it if i were you.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

cu_cannon, good luck with that ipad. of course, i think i saw pshrynk heading over in that direction with something hidden behind his back, and he was looking pretty shifty (more than usual, i mean), so i'd try to keep an eye on it if i were you.

Hey, that's not fair, pshrynk already has an iPad, he doesn't need another... wait a minute, did he sneak into the future to snatch it away already?

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Hey, that's not fair, pshrynk already has an iPad, he doesn't need another... wait a minute, did he sneak into the future to snatch it away already?

i wouldn't put it past him !

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Here's mine, which at the time I felt pretty certain was right. (Originally posted in the discussion thread.)

<<<>>>

My OFFICIAL solution to the Rock Lobster - PI for Hire mystery
by WT Sharpe

Nekokami killed pshrink.

* She had motive: Not only was she incensed by pshrink charging her $300.00 for advice she considered unnecessary, but she may have been jealous of his success as a writer as well.

* She had no alibi. No one saw her during the time of the murder, and she avoided the question when Rock asked her.

* Pshrink implicated her by the Yellow Star with the Red Q he was clutching. She said, “I’m a BLOODY QUAKER!”, and what better way for the dying man to implicate a Bloody Quaker than by pulling out his old avatar? Red Q = Bloody Quaker. Oh, what a giveaway!

I chose Nekokami as the murderer because she had motive, no alibi, and was a “Bloody Quaker” who was implicated by pshrink by his clutching of the Yellow Star with the Red Q.

How could a china doll like Nekokami have the brute force to bludgeon Pshrynk? Explain that one to me....

[GeoffC]

she hit him, gently .....

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

How could a china doll like Nekokami have the brute force to bludgeon Pshrynk? Explain that one to me....

Even a small child can be deadly with a hammer! Of could, all the china dolls I've seen seem to have a bit of a flexibility problem which would have made swinging that crowbar difficult. Hmmm... didn't think of that!

[Rich_D]

Have any of the winners received their email from Directebooks.com yet? I just tried to sign up for their newsletter and I haven't received the email to complete the registration, so I'm a little concerned that it and my certificate are trapped in a spam filter somewhere!

[Godzil]

/me search for a copy of the Red Button

[KarenH]

Originally Posted by Rich_D

Have any of the winners received their email from Directebooks.com yet? I just tried to sign up for their newsletter and I haven't received the email to complete the registration, so I'm a little concerned that it and my certificate are trapped in a spam filter somewhere!

I haven't heard anything yet either. I'm assuming we won't get anything from them until after the weekend.