In the novel, the development of the story is also narrated in the first person, which means that the author presents the perspective of the hero Charlie, his understanding and cognition. Then we all know that after watching the movie, Charlie is an idiot in the first place, and even you who watch the movie think he is weak.
1. What is the relationship between Charlie and Sophia?
They're former lovers, and in the book Charlie is even about to propose to her, no matter what, the hero undoubtedly loves Sophia very much.
Sophia asked Charlie to investigate the case, ostensibly hoping that he would investigate the murder as an outsider, but with the relationship between the two, can Charlie really analyze Sophia as an outsider? No matter how suspicious he was about her, subconsciously, he hoped that his lover had nothing to do with it.
Sophia just took advantage of this. She even knew that Charlie had a close relationship with the police department, and his decision would greatly affect the police department's judgment.
Some people may ask, if Sophia is the murderer, wouldn't it be nice to let everyone think that grandfather died smoothly? Why did she ask Charlie to come back?
The reason is in the will.
Her grandfather didn't sign the estate-sharing will (he made everyone think he signed it), not because he wanted to leave the entire estate to his step-wife Brenda, but because he hadn't made up his mind at the time, Naturally, he could not have imagined that after this will was signed, he would die abnormally.
(In the book, he signed the will that Sophia had inherited.)
After Charlie's arrival, it is logical that a new valid will appeared——
The beneficiary is Sophia.
2. When the new will was announced, Sophia said that her grandfather had mentioned that she wanted her to inherit his family property, but she also said that maybe it was just a joke, just like her grandfather always liked to play with others. But there is no doubt that this incident took root in Sophia's heart, and she began to hope that this incident would come true, which was the starting point for her to start planning this incident.
And did grandfather really just tell her? In fact, Sophia has long known and even seen the will that made her heart move.
Without the intervention of Charlie, the appearance of the new will will make the family quickly realize that the death of the old man is related to Sophia. And the first wife Brenda, who was the biggest beneficiary at first, took over all the suspects for this reason, and was almost hanged because of forged evidence.
Is it possible that Sophia forged the will? Unlikely, in the grandfather's position, the signing of the will requires the presence of the entire family and the signature of a notary public.
Sophia killed her grandfather because she didn't trust him, because according to her grandfather's usual teasing practice, the will would not be final until he died. (The corresponding details are that he has also drawn up a will before. After the equally divided will appears, it means that the wishes of the parties have changed, so regardless of whether he signed the divided will or not, the old will will be automatically invalidated, and the beneficiary will be According to the law became the step-wife Brenda)
3. Brenda's letters, mentioned in the child's diary, were forged. So, is the person who forged the letter, Josephine, or the real murderer?
It is not difficult for the murderer to imitate his grandfather's signature and his step-wife's calligraphy like a ten-year-old child, but what about imitating Josephine's diary? a piece of cake.
Who has this ability? ——Sophia, she could see Aunt Edith's letter and immediately realized that it was her aunt's notes, which showed that she knew a lot about her family's notes.
Wouldn't it be great to imitate her handwriting and put a fake diary in the room for the aunt who cared about Josephine to find out? She will take all the charges in order to protect this child.
It is mentioned in the novel that the first page of the diary is: I killed my maternal grandfather.
That is to say, the start time of the diary is from the death of the grandfather.
Because the previous content is meaningless, for the murderer, she only needs a diary similar to a confession. And the real diary may have been destroyed by her.
- So we need to recall the detail that Sophia burned her grandfather's memoirs. Pay attention to this point in time, after Sophia burned the papers, Charlie stayed overnight, everyone ate together, and then Charlie found Josephine in the narrow corridor. The next day, Josephine fell and was injured, and then her aunt saw her diary.
Among the things that Sophia burned, the memoirs were just a blindfold. She deliberately let Charlie see the last few pages to prove it, and the real burnt should be Josephine's real diary. Josephine needs to fall, otherwise, she will find that her diary is completely different from what she was secretly recording!
The first thing Josephine did when she came back from the hospital was to write down the reactions to Brenda and Mr. Brown's arrest in her notebook, but she couldn't find it - in fact, since the day Sophia burned things, Joe Sephine never saw her diary again.
4. Two victims.
Whether it was the death of grandfather or the death of Nanny Lanny, there was one person at the murder scene at the same time - Sophia.
On the day of her grandfather's death, sister Josephine said she visited her grandfather "with extreme caution"; on the day Lenny died, it was Sophia who brought Josephine hot cocoa. She knows that her sister never drinks hot cocoa, so why should she bring it over? It's better to drink it herself.
In one detail, when the milk was boiling, Sophia walked over to turn off the fire and shouted, "Lanny, the milk is boiling."
Hot cocoa cocoa powder is added to the milk, and Sophia can totally add the poison while stirring the cocoa.
But why would she poison a nurse?
But it was to corroborate the statement in Josephine's diary that she hated the wet nurse and wanted to kill her. After all, Laney doesn't have any conflict of interest with anyone else, and if Laney really died, then Josephine's killing of her grandfather would have become more convincing.
5. Sophia's Cry
Sophia never thought of killing Josephine. After all, she was her own sister, and Josephine was too young. Even if she killed someone, she would only be put in a lunatic asylum or labor camp. With Sophia's later financial resources, Taking care of her is no problem.
All she wanted was for Aunt Edith to find out about the child's conspiracy, and to cover her up.
But what she doesn't know is that Edith is terminally ill (detail: two aunts go to the city and she looks at her suspiciously and confused). Aunt loves this ugly child deeply. She doesn't want her to be judged, and she doesn't want her to grow into a monster, so she took all the crimes and took Josephine away, which made it difficult for the ruthless Sophia. accept.
5. Our goofy hero Charlie.
Everyone is saying that Charlie is simply a scumbag in the detective class.
Can't the heroine see it?
What a good help a heroine who is stupid and loves himself madly!
In the end, she got love, fortune, and got rid of a bunch of vampire relatives, and she was the biggest winner.
Naturally, this is just a statement. In fact, as a murderer, Josephine is also tenable. In the novel, Charlie's father is still alive, and he puts forward a theory that the murderer is very lonely, and he wants to share with others, even if he can't share the details of the murder , is also willing to talk about the case itself, which is confirmed by Josephine, who likes detective games. And the film undoubtedly weakens this trait, which makes the audience think more about whether the murderer is Josephine or Sophia.
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