I had the same reaction, that male victims seem more common to me. But, I realized that most of what I was thinking of were the classic Agatha Christie puzzle mysteries I read as a kid. As I remember, they often made the victim not terribly sympathetic (or at least not compellingly so), so you could concentrate more on the joy of solving the mystery, and the struggle of detective vs. criminal without concern for justice being done getting in the way too much. Given the time period Christie was writing in, maybe making victims men was part of that, to avoid stirring up chivalrous feelings?

Wasn’t that a fun one? I loved it. I’ve been looking out for more vintage mysteries like that.

I withdraw the complaint then, about female victims! I don’t read enough mysteries, plainly. I am probably just reading reviews of the wrong ones.

Oh, he disguises himself? Is that the thing? But he keeps a patch of skin that’s not painted dark, so he can prove he’s white if necessary? Hahaha, because this is actually not that different from that.

I think he’d been there for a while? But I now can’t specifically remember.

Yeah, fair enough.

Hahaha, I didn’t expect it to get any lighter in tone. I’ve got the second and third books at home ready to read!