Mystery Tropes

Basic Information

These are genre tropes relevant to mystery scenarios. For a more extensive list that also includes Detective characters and tropes, and courtroom tropes, see Crime and Punishment Tropes.

• Absence of Evidence
• The Alibi
• Anachronistic Clue
• Anonymous Killer Narrator
• Anti-Climactic Unmasking
• Beneath Suspicion
• Blood-Stained Letter
• Bluffing the Murderer
• The Butler Did It
• Cast as a Mask
• Chronic Evidence Retention Syndrome
• Clock Discrepancy
• Closed Circle
• Clueless Mystery
• Condensation Clue
• Confess in Confidence
• Consulting a Convicted Killer
• Conviction by Contradiction
• Cozy Mystery
• Curtain Camouflage
• Cut Himself Shaving
• Death in the Clouds
• Did Not Die That Way
• Disability Alibi
• The Dog Was the Mastermind
• Dramatic Curtain Toss
• Driving Question
• Eagle-Eye Detection
• Eureka Moment
• Everyone Is a Suspect
• Everybody Did It
• Evidence Dungeon
• Evidence Scavenger Hunt
• Evil Plan
• Exposition Victim
• Fair-Play Whodunnit
• Finger-Licking Poison
• Fingertip Drug Analysis
• The Game Never Stopped
• Hide the Evidence
• Hidden in Plain Sight
• Hidden Villain
• I Never Said It Was Poison
• Important Character, Important Evidence
• Intrepid Reporter
• Let Off by the Detective
• Lights Off, Somebody Dies
• Locked Room Mystery
• Lotsa People Try to Dun It
• The Meddling Kids Are Useless
• Mistaken for Evidence
• Mockspiracy
• Mockstery Tale
• Motive Equals Conclusive Evidence
• Mysterious Stranger
• Mystery Arc
• Mystery Magnet
• Mystery of the Week
• Needle in a Stack of Needles
• Never One Murder
• Never Suicide
• Never the Obvious Suspect
• Notable Non Sequitur
• Not-So-Fake Prop Weapon
• Old, Dark House
• Only One Plausible Suspect
• Ontological Mystery
• Orgy of Evidence
• Perfect Poison
• Placebo Eureka Moment
• Precrime Arrest
• Proof Dare
• Public Secret Message
• Puzzle Thriller
• Red Herring
• Reverse Whodunnit
• Rewind, Replay, Repeat
• A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside an Enigma
• Ripped from the Headlines
• Saying Too Much
• Secret Identity Apathy
• Serial Killings, Specific Target
• Shell Game
• Sherlock Can Read
• Sherlock Scan
• The Seven Mysteries
• Signature Item Clue
• Spot the Imposter
• The Stakeout
• The End... Or Is It?
• Stranger Behind the Mask
• The Summation
• Summation Gathering
• Suspect Is Hatless
• That Mysterious Thing
• Ten Little Murder Victims
• Thriller on the Express
• Twist Ending
• Two Dun It
• The Unsolved Mystery
• Weather Report Opening
• Wheel Program
• Whodunnit to Me?
• Who Murdered the Asshole?
• World of Mysteries
• Writing Indentation Clue
• You Meddling Kids
• You Wake Up in a Room
• You Wake Up on a Beach

Sources

Bibliography

1. TV Tropes Wiki

Game and Story Use