Beneath Suspicion: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A character who is clearly linked with all the victims of a crime spree is inexplicably not even regarded as a suspect by the detectives until halfway through the final act.

 

Source of [[The Butler Did It]]. Also see [[The Dog Was the Mastermind]].

 

== Film ==

* Played with in the first ''[[Scary Movie]]'', as the killer is "posing" as mentally handicapped.

* The obvious candidate in the 2007 horror ''Drive Thru'' is {{spoiler|the owner of the drive thru chain and the father of the kid died in an accident when he was 18}}. The police only suspect him 3 quarters into the movie, {{spoiler|but this is subverted as they are [[Wrong Genre Savvy]]: they're not in a normal murder mystery, the killer is the ghost of the dead kid.}}

** Well, mostly, it's because the police don't believe that any murders have taken place at all, as they have all been set up to look like accidents {{spoiler|Except for [[Mole in Charge|the Chief]], who is one of the murderers himself}}.

 

== Literature ==

* Remarked on by author John Dickson Carr in an essay on the [[Fair Play Whodunnit]]: never remind the reader that a suspect has an airtight alibi, or he'll immediately be suspected. Treat it as such a given that it never occurs to the detective (or the writer!) to suspect Joe because Joe is so ''obviously'' innocent.

* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'':

*** It's also played straight in the same book. Harry never once suspects the correct person of being the Half-Blood Prince and has to be told who it is. {{spoiler|this is despite his habit of suspecting Snape of anything and also the (once common) tradition in British schools of school teachers keeping their favourite text book in the book cupboard and it only ending up in the hands of pupils if they're desperate (precisely because of how moth-eaten and scrawled over these books often were). Apparently Ron and Harry were familiar enough with their own education system to fight over who didn't get the old book [[Idiot Plot|but weren't familiar enough to associate that book with being the teacher's.]] As a result, the one time Snape should have legitimately been one of Harry's (or at least Hermione's) ''first'' suspects was the one time he inexplicably wasn't suspected at all.}}

*** On the other hand, {{spoiler|Slughorn ''had'' taken over for Snape as potions master that year, so they only had Slughorn to relate it to.}}

* The murderer in [[Tamora Pierce]]'s ''[[Circle of Magic|Shatterglass]]'' ends up being a {{spoiler|''prathmun'', a member of the Untouchable caste, considered so low and degraded that to even acknowledge his presence requires being ritually purified afterward.}}

* Deliberately invoked by John Kelly in ''[[Jack Ryan|Without Remorse]]'' when he goes on his [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] while disguised as a bum. Had he not accidentally walked onto the scene of a totally unrelated mugging and left behind a wine bottle with no fingerprints on it, the police might not have realized how he was operating.

* In ''[[Dune]]'', Dr. Wellington Yueh is the obvious suspect to be the traitor who will betray the Atreides to their Harkonnen rivals. However, he has supposedly been the recipient of Sukh mental conditioning, guaranteeing that he can never voluntarily take a human life. Therefore he is able to fool even a [[Living Lie Detector]] who is specifically alert for signs of potential treachery. In other words, he is set up as a [[Red Herring Mole]] to conceal the fact that he is actually [[The Mole]].

 

* This is used in an episode of ''[[Sherlock]]'' when the killer was {{spoiler|a taxi driver}}.

{{quote|'''Sherlock:''' This is his hunting ground. Right here, in the heart of the city. Now that we know that his victims were abducted, that changes everything. 'Cause all of his victims dissapeared from buisy streets, crowded places, but nobody saw them go. ''Think!'' Who do we trust, even though we don't know them? Who passes, unnoticed, wherever they go? Who hunts in the middle of a crowd?

'''Watson:''' I dunno, who?

'''Sherlock:''' ... I haven't the faintest. Hungry? }}

 

== Tabletop Games ==

 

* {{spoiler|Dee Vasquez and Acro}} in ''[[Ace Attorney]]''. Somewhat justified by the fact that the investigators didn't even know {{spoiler|Vasquez}} was near the murder scene until the very end of the first trial day, and {{spoiler|Acro is in a wheelchair}}. {{spoiler|Acro basically even says, ''"I'm in wheelchair, you jerk, how could you accuse me?!"''}}

** Also the {{spoiler|true head of the smuggling ring in ''Investigations'' and culprit of both 5-5 murders}} is the sweet, self-effacing {{spoiler|[[Manipulative Bastard]] Quercus Alba. Despite being the ambassador from KG-8 to the present, nobody thinks to investigate the guy who can barely walk even with a cane.}}

* In a meta example, {{spoiler|Kalas}} in the first [[Baten Kaitos]] game. Few players would expect to be betrayed by {{spoiler|the main character.}}

** In an even more meta example, the sequel has {{spoiler|''the player themselves'' (unknowingly)}} lying to Sagi and co.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

== Western Animation ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Mystery Tropes]]

[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]