@KitFox so long as the characters are likeable for just long enough and you don't destroy their likeability abruptly, ending up disliking everyone is OK (IMO) The trick is to not make the reader feel like they've been cheated or betrayed.

unless you want to make the readers feel that way

I only saw the first two seasons of the Mentalist, but I always argued with my then girlfriend that Patrick Jane is the most likely suspect to be Red John. She would tell me that that couldn't be the case because that would be too much for the audience to take. They have invested so much in liking him that switching his rôle so drastically would ruin the show.

rolls over and scratches back on floor