Linked-List Clue Methodology

"Why can't they just say "go to this place and here's the treasure; spend it wisely"?"

- Riley Poole, National Treasure

A common system for distributing clues in any genre where the heroes must investigate something (this includes not only Crime and Punishment Series but also many Action Series and Science Fiction series). In plots which use the Linked-List Clue Methodology, each clue tells the heroes where the next clue should be found, and the next clue leads them to the clue after that, and so on until they get to the solution. This is named after the concept of a "linked list" in computer science, where each element in the list contains a "pointer" to the next element, which can be anywhere in the memory.

The Linked-List Clue Methodology is extremely common in video games, particularly role-playing games, where it provides a convenient mechanism to force the player to follow the predetermined plot without appearing to put overly contrived restrictions on the player's actions.

When the clues are being actively supplied by someone who thinks he's a Chessmaster, see Criminal Mind Games. For when there's a really weak connection between the clues see Plot Coupon.

Anime and Manga

 * Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn: Essentially The Da Vinci Code IN SPACE WITH MECHA!.

Comics

 * This is more or less The Riddler's MO in Batman.
 * Some of Uncle Scrooge's more expansive treasure hunts take this form.
 * The Dutchman's Secret by Don Rosa has at least a rich justification: the clues are not made by the same authors. The treasure had been found and lost many times, each treasure owner intentionally obscuring the maps they'd used to throw off the competition before being driven out of the mountains. Then, they wrote clear and straightforward directions for their friends or family which the next treasure hunter would use to find the treasure. Until Donald accidentally destroyed the last map, and the Ducks are forced to make use of the clues that are not completely eradicated.
 * In the comics, Spider Man's first encounter with the Sinister Six worked like this. They had kidnapped his current girlfriend and Aunt May (mostly by coincidence), and planned battle locations where they would each have advantages. Once Spidey beat one, he received a card with the next villain's location.

Film

 * The entire point of the National Treasure movies was this kind of chase.
 * To a lesser extent, the Indiana Jones movies Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade both follow this style, although Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom passes on this in favor of one long Death Course.
 * Mystery Woman: In the Shadows had a former spy hide the identity of a mole with this method
 * Subverted in the movie Day of Wrath, where the main character stumbles into a series of murders with letters carved into the body. When he finally confronts the mastermind behind them and demands to know what they mean, presenting a bunch of jumbled letters, he is promptly told "It's supposed to be Dies Irae, or Day of Wrath. It seems you missed a few murders."
 * Candleshoe has the main character attempting to find a hidden treasure in a mansion using a series of clues.
 * The Spanish horror movie The Orphanage is full of them. The little boy enjoys setting them as a game for his mother; when he disappears, she finds herself following one to try to find him.
 * Most of Men in Black II consists of K trying to regain his memories through a list of clues that he left for himself.

Literature

 * Dan Brown's best known novels, Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code, both work this way.
 * Unfortunate in The Da Vinci Code, since the cryptex was a severely outdated security mechanism. Check this page for at least three methods of opening it without the password.
 * Redwall uses this a few times. Pearls of Lutra is the most notable; how else are you going to find the titular pearls if not through a series of riddles?
 * Defied in Un Lun Dun by China Mieville. The protagonist consults a book of prophecy, discovers that she's supposed to follow a bunch of clues that work this way, and insists on skipping immediately to the end of the list.
 * This was the basic plot of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Musgrave Ritual," thus making this trope Older Than Radio.
 * The novel Satan from the 7th Grade centers around an extended scavenger hunt following the clues that a long-dead French soldier left for his brother, that only the two of them were supposed to understand.
 * In Stephen King's Lisey's Story, Scott and Paul play a treasure hunt game using linked list clues.

Live Action TV

 * This is used often in Cold Case, in which every single episode consists of the cops following a trail of evidence (often 10, 20, 30, or in one case 70 years cold) that leads from one eyewitness to the next, each giving just enough information to get the next clue, but no more.
 * Power Rangers Operation Overdrive did this. Fridge Logic kicks in though, due to there being five major artifacts the Rangers must find, which they manage to do every six or seven episodes, at which point they just coincidentally find info about the next treasure without any sort of previous clue, leading to the newest linked list. They never find artifacts in the wrong order, not matching up? The Rangers and the four villain organizations are always on the same trail of the same artifact leading to the same jewel at the same time?
 * The Amazing Race is set up like this, although some fans have complained that the "clues" were only truly clues in the first few seasons, and are now more often simply directions.
 * Given that Jerry Bruckheimer is involved in The Amazing Race, Cold Case, and the National Treasure movies, he appears to have a fondness for this sort of thing.
 * The reality program Treasure Hunters.
 * The premise of Road Rules - five (later six) strangers traveled in a Winnebago to various locations in the US (or occasionally abroad) to complete missions and challenges; at the end of one mission, a clue was given to the location of the next.
 * Supermarket Sweep - in the "Bonus Sweep", the winning contestants had one minute to find clues to three grocery products in the market to locate $5,000 in cash.
 * Finders Keepers - the "Room-to-Room Romp" required the winning team to find a "clue card" in each of six rooms in the house, each of which outlined what room to go to next and the clue for the location of the card in that room. Finding the sixth card in 90 seconds won the grand prize.

Tabletop Games

 * Tabletop RPG Gumshoe (Trail of Cthulhu, Esoterrorists), has this as a main game mechanic.

Video Games

 * The History Quest for newbies in Achaea involves hiking from town to town talking to NPCs, each conversation pointing you to the next one. Subverted because at one point, the quest seems to dead-end; in fact,.
 * In the MMORPG A Tale In The Desert, one standard puzzle-making challenge requires a player to create a series of linked 'clues' on random in-world objects, leading to the desired end result. This is then judged by the solvers.
 * Repeatedly used in the .hack games. Kite goes to dungeon, gets information about the next part of the poen, goes to next dungeon, same thing happens. Add some irrelevant sidequests (oh noes Piros is in danger again!) and a few boss fights, and you have a 4 series game.
 * Most cases in LA Noire work like this. With one exception, however, they're generally pretty subtle about it.
 * In The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure, Nigel playtests a treasure-hunt game for Nanny Noah that uses this trope.
 * Ultima VI has Chuckles the court jester sending the Avatar on a cross-kingdom scavenger hunt, the last clue of which is hidden not far from Chuckles himself. For extra irritation points, that clue sends you to talk to Smith the talking horse, who promptly gives you a crucial piece of information necessary to solve... Ultima V.

Western Animation
""You know, that only makes sense if I guessed wrong first.''"
 * Subverted in The Simpsons. Bart has hidden something of Lisa's, having left a series of clues like this. Lisa, however, knows Bart too well and after five seconds of thought rushes straight to the hiding spot.
 * Played straight (as straight as anything in The Simpsons, at least) in the episode, "Gone Maggie Gone", considering there're plenty of jokes at The DaVinci Code's expense.


 * In the G3.5 My Little Pony short Sweetie Belle's Gumball House Surprise, Sweetie Belle leaves clues for the others at different locations in her house to lead them to her backyard, where she is waiting with muffins.
 * On one episode of Family Guy, Peter sends Lois on a scavenger hunt following this model to distract her while he plays golf on their wedding anniversary. She doesn't figure it out until the last clue, which tells her to go back to the start and admits he didn't expect her to make it this far before he got back.
 * In one episode of Dexter's Laboratory, Dee Dee swiped a "strange glowing thingie" from Dexter's latest creation and set him on this kind of game in order to find it. Though the "strange glowing thingie" in question was actually the core component for what amounted to a Nuclear Fission reactor, and said reactor would go critical after an hour if it wasn't returned made things a little more urgent.
 * Then after he got it back, the book he was planning to read was taken by Dee Dee.