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.

Pretty much endemic in murder mysteries, especially British ones like ''[[Taggart]], [[Midsomer Murders]],'' et al. Done properly, the writer will be able to convince even the audience, who are [[Genre Savvy]] enough to regard ''everybody'' with suspicion, even the detectives.

* The killer in ''Below Suspicion'' was {{spoiler|in a prison cell when the murder was committed}}.

* 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.

*** 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.}}

** Also used in ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban|Harry Potter]]''. You can't get much more [[Beneath Suspicion]] than {{spoiler|someone's pet rat}}.

** Animagi seem to like using this reasoning, especially unregistered ones. In ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone|Philosopher's Stone]]'', Professor [McGonagall] spends all day spying on the Dursleys in the form of a cat. Later on, various other animagi try using the same reasoning with varying degrees of success such as Sirius trying to get away with using his dog-form {{spoiler|and Rita Skeeter obtaining her stories by turning into a bug.}}

* 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.}}

* 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]].

== Live Action TV ==

{{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? <br />

'''Watson:''' I dunno, who?<br />

== Videogames ==

** 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 ''[[Ace Attorney Investigations]] 2'', it takes until the very end of the fifth case for Edgeworth to realize that {{spoiler|maybe the best friend of the first case's victim might be somehow connected to events. Pretty justifiable, as in this case 'events' meant multiple kidnappings, manipulating two high-level law enforcement officers into committing murder, and hiring an assassin to kill a president. Said best friend was a ''clown''.}}

* 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.

== Western Animation ==

** Double subverted in one episode, where the kids meet a creepy old man who tells them a creepy story of a haunted house, then disappears. They spend most of the episode trying to catch a headless ghost in said haunted house, only to find out it's the inheritor of the house (a person they've never seen before), trying to keep treasure hunters away until he can recover his grandfather's fortune. The next moment, a masked burglar wearing a bedsheet on his head breaks into the house. They catch him and guess what? He's the guy they met in the beginning.

** In another episode, they are alone for the first half without meeting anyone. This one has no disguised villains, just a malfunctioning robot and an inventor trying to repair it, and his wife, who doesn't like robots, and only appears at the very end.