Rock,
Well, he does like twists and turns. Look how many of the stories in TIODDAOSAOS depend on this kind of Mobius strip: the title story, Alien Stones, Dr. of Death Is., Eyeflash, to a degree. Etc. (I'm also a new reader to this collection.)
I could see the deformity coming a mile off too--it was telegraphed every which way--but not the murder. Not nice.
I have a reader's guide to Wolfe that mantis sent me, published in 1986 by Joan Gordon. She's very uneven, useless on "Traveler's Song," much better on "Seven American Nights," which obviously caught her fancy. And one thing she notes, that I'll pass along, about playing Russian roulette with the acid-impregnated eggs:
"We know that he eats five of the six eggs: his mind may be altered further on any one of these occasions, or on all, if all the eggs are tainted as the one in the theater may have been. As for the sixth egg, Nadan believes that the police may have searched his room and stolen it, but there is another explanation. The sixth egg may have been the one containing the hallucinogen, and its effects may have caused him to lose a day. Our proof? 'Seven American Nights' describes only six nights."
Woo!
-alga-