[identity profile] ilya187.livejournal.com 2016-03-15 10:40 pm (UTC)(link)
In the afterword, Sandford and Ctein explain why they did it:

Precisely to evoke your reaction.

In other words, it was subtle trolling on the authors' part.

[identity profile] philrm.livejournal.com 2016-03-16 12:09 am (UTC)(link)
I'm not sure it really counts as trolling when my reaction to this revelation can be summed up as "Meh."