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
Game and Story Use
page revision: 1, last edited: 07 Sep 2019 23:53