10 of the Most Enduring Mystery Tropes

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When it comes to mystery, the plot revolves around an event whose details are slowly revealed through an investigative process. The event, usually a crime, is examined through a mixture of inquiry, deductive reasoning, forensics, and sometimes sheer luck.

With its intriguing plots, the mystery genre has established certain tropes that amp up suspense. These tropes are familiar and often parodied, frequently making their way into other genres.

Mystery is a wide genre, covering subgenres such as cozy mysteries, whodunits, howcatchems, locked-room mysteries, and more. As such, many of the tropes listed below can be found in numerous types of stories.

1. Dame With a Case

The detective is loafing around his office—sipping on whiskey and smoking a cigar—when a lady bursts in demanding help. Well dressed and all made-up, she cuts an impressive figure.

In most examples, the case begins with a sob story explaining her predicament. This happens in two ways: the lady is either arrogant and forceful, or desperate and distraught. Either way, the detective becomes curious enough to at least take a look at her case.

Typically, the dame is a femme fatale who knows more about the case than she lets on. Her story is a facade meant to lure the detective in for some ulterior motive. The case turns out to be something else entirely, and the detective finds himself caught up in an extremely dangerous situation.

Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon is the best-known example of this. The beautiful “Miss Wonderley” walks into his office claiming her sister is missing and involved with a man. She is eventually unmasked as an antagonist and murderer.

2. The One You Least Suspect

The detective has gathered the evidence, interrogated the necessary people, and is ready to bring them all together. But when he does so, everyone is surprised that the culprit is the person they least suspect!

Everything points to an obvious suspect, so you take a closer look at their movements in the story. It turns out that, while they are bad people, they weren’t the bad ones in this particular case.

The culprit’s been there all along, cruising below everyone’s radar. They’ve frequently appeared in the story but you never suspected a thing until the big reveal. And now that you know, you can’t understand how you never noticed something so obvious. “The butler did it!” is the classic example.

Another can be found is in The Usual Suspects. An agent interrogates small-time criminal Verbal Kint about a recent massacre he was involved in. Kint tells a story about the mastermind, a legendary crime lord named Keyser Soze. By the time the agent realizes that Kint is Soze, he’s already gone.

3. Everybody Did It

A crime is discovered and a likely cast of suspects are gathered. Their alibis are analyzed, clues are gathered, and the detective comes to a shocking conclusion. No one is innocent, because they were all in on it.

Everyone is part of an elaborate conspiracy to commit the crime and get away with it. The investigation becomes harder to do as every suspect will definitely support each other’s alibis. The goal is to muddy the case so much that nothing concrete can be put on any of them.

It’s almost always never a foolproof plan though. Some of them get overconfident and slip up or they’re consumed by guilt and confess voluntarily.

The best example of this is Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. All of the passengers on the train (except the victims and detectives) were involved in the murder of a fellow passenger. Not only were they connected to each other in some way, but each took a turn stabbing the victim, ensuring that no one knows who inflicted the killing blow.

4. The Detective Dénouement

The case slowly picks up speed and culminates with the protagonist (who is usually the sleuth) laying out his conclusion for all the other characters. There’s an avalanche of information as the detective explains every clue and event, connects them all together, and finally reveals the culprit.

Writers use the detective dénouement to wrap up every loose end in the story while explaining to the reader how the protagonist came to the conclusion. It also works similarly with the “doing a Sherlock” trope (see #7), reminding the reader of how awesome the protagonist is.

There are instances where the detective denouement isn’t done by the sleuth. Sometimes writers include it to create a short summary of what’s happened in the story. A famous example is in the speech given by the forensic psychologist in Psycho.

5. Not A Suicide

The police are investigating a death. It appears to be suicide, complete with a note explaining why the person killed themselves. But something about it just doesn’t add up, and the protagonist is determined to get to the bottom of it.

It might be how the body is positioned, the way the letter was written, or any other thing that catches the detective’s attention. Despite their superior’s warnings, they always decide to investigate further.

Sure enough, they’re right about it being murder. As they dig further, they discover that the crime isn’t as simple as they thought. Their search inevitably digs up years of buried grudges, secret lives, and conspiracies.

This trope is often subverted in mystery novels. For example, in Michael Connelly’s The Narrows, the protagonist suspects that an FBI agent’s apparent suicide was caused by a serial killer. In the end, it’s proven to really be suicide, but the FBI framed it as a murder so the dead guy’s wife can collect his pension.

6. Twist Ending

It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book: The plot is leading to an inevitable conclusion when something is suddenly thrown in that changes everything.

It looks like the hero is finally winning when, BAM, the villain divulges crucial information that the hero can’t ignore. Or an amnesiac is led to believe he’s a good guy but discovers he’s actually the villain.

The twist ending is the original trope subversion. It sets a person up to believe one thing, the pulls the rug out from under them during a crucial moment. Because of this, it’s one of the tropes that’s largely a hit or miss. The reader is either amazed by the deception or feels cheated from a satisfying conclusion.

A great example of this is seen in Primal Fear. A defense attorney believes his client (who has a dissociative personality disorder) is innocent. It’s already too late when he discovers that the disorder was faked and that his client did kill the victim.

7. Doing a Sherlock

There’s no doubt that Sherlock Holmes is the basis for many fictional detectives that came after him. These inspirations usually manifest in a sleuth who’s able to quickly and correctly deduce details about a person without any prior information about them.

It’s an impressive way of introducing how a detective’s mind works. Writers easily differentiate their characters from others simply because they notice things that the average person wouldn’t. Plus, it serves to demonstrate that the detective is just that incredible.

When fully enforced, the character’s eyesight seems almost otherworldly, able to notice every detail however small. They’re shown to be highly intelligent, expounding on these visual cues and connecting them in ways that often confuse people.

In Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue (which predates Sherlock Holmes), C. Auguste Dupin correctly discerns the narrator’s train of thought in just a few minutes of walking beside him. He’s so good that he even explains the chain of events that led the narrator to that particular subject.

8. Criminal Consultants

A criminal is on the loose and the police are desperate for any kind of help. Good thing they have an expert on hand whom they can consult—only, the expert is currently incarcerated for the same crime.

Before the criminal strikes again, the protagonist pays a visit to a prisoner who is just as skilled, demented, or dangerous as the one they’re currently pursuing. However, this consultation always comes with a price, such as reduced sentences, extended privileges, or even freedom. A variation is when the criminal is recruited into working on the case.

Both versions often lead to a double-cross. The prisoner sets things up in such a way that they either break free from captivity or guarantee a result that only they like.

The best example of this is in Silence of the Lambs. The imprisoned Hannibal Lecter is visited multiple times for help catching another serial killer. Not only does he gain valuable information about the protagonist, but he also manipulates events as an opportunity to escape.

9. Nosy Reporter

A lot of mystery novels often have reporters who go above and beyond their job descriptions for the sake of the scoop. In some novels, they’re the protagonists.

They often get too involved with the stories they’re covering, disregarding anything to get to the bottom of the mystery. Many of them are troublemakers, constantly breaking the law—not to mention journalist ethics—to obtain any sort of information. This can range from simple bribes to going undercover in a criminal establishment.

This is done in the name of the freedom of the press or that the people have a right to know. There are exceptions, of course. Some just want a juicy story, even willing to fudge some facts to suit their needs.

Whenever there’s a crime, it’s almost guaranteed that an investigative journalist will show up to dive into the case. It has come to a point where it seems the investigative journalist is the only kind of reporter that exists.

F.H. Batacan’s Smaller and Smaller Circles has Joanna Bonifacio. Throughout the novel, she chases after the protagonists, even lending a helping hand, so she can secure a good story for her show. Another example is her father, who goes out to investigate but ends up dead.

10. Alibis

Just like in real-life investigations, establishing a suspect’s alibi is a common element in mystery fiction. It proves that they were either someplace else when it happened, or lack the knowledge and skills needed to do the deed.

Alibis are used in a variety of ways in fiction. Characters often provide false alibis because they were doing something embarrassing or career-ending at the time, or their alibis simply can’t be verified as they were alone when the crime occurred.

A usual subplot is proving that a suspect’s alibi is false, or at least suspicious. This often hinges on an otherwise unknown witness, an overlooked clue, or a sudden logical revelation.

The Elementary episode “One Way to Get Off” has a weird take on this. Sherlock and the detectives are interviewing a man in his home. They notice something odd and smash through a false wall, discovering a captive woman within.

The captive ultimately provides an alibi for the suspect, which leads to one of the detectives commenting: “His alibi for murder is that he was at home raping his sex slave?”

Mystery and The Driving Question

The core element of mystery fiction often takes the form of a question. Something has happened, and the protagonist must discover the truth behind it. This is most evident in whodunits (Who did it?) and howcatchems (How do we catch them?). It differs from story to story but its direction remains the same: discover the answer and you solve the case.

The driving question compels you and the characters to move forward in the story. It immediately presents you with a challenge while promising a reward at the end.

Mysteries are all about setting up a great number of things, doing it all in the background, and making sure the viewers don’t realize what you’re doing until you want them to. Tropes are then used to either obscure, misdirect, or prevent you and the protagonist from easily arriving at the correct answer.

What’s your favorite mystery trope? Share it in the comments below!

 

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