The Uselessness of the Law

The epilogue shows the police baffled, unable to solve the crime, highlighting the failure of official justice.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

The Police Investigation

The Baffled Authorities The Scene of the Crime When the police arrived, they found ten bodies. They could not explain how it happened. The evidence was contradictory. The fingerprints, the weapons, the bodies—none of it made sense. The official investigation was a failure. The Unsolved Case Inspector Maine and Sir Thomas Legge discussed the case. They knew the victims were guilty, but they could not prove who killed them. They had no suspect. The law was powerless. It was only Wargrave's confession that solved the mystery, and it came too late for the police to take credit.

The Confession Found

The Final Revelation The Bottle A fishing trawler found the bottle with Wargrave's confession. It was the key to the puzzle. The police could finally understand what had happened. But there was no one to arrest. The killer was dead. The Legacy The confession was a gift to the world. It explained the mystery, but it also left a moral question: was Wargrave a hero or a monster? The law could not answer. The novel ends with the sense that some crimes are beyond the reach of law, and some justice is beyond the law.

after August 12th

after the police investigation