The Butler Did It: Difference between revisions
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The butler is the avatar of the most unlikely suspect that, of course, turns out to be guilty because the author wasn't creative enough to come up with a better way to surprise the reader. It's the mystery writer equivalent of the [[Ass Pull]], except that you can see it coming a mile away, making it, for modern readers, [[The Untwist]]. Ironically because this trope is so well known, when an 'actual' butler is involved he rarely 'did it' or when he did it is down as a parody and [[Played for Laughs]].
The expression "The butler did it" was probably coined by novelist Mary Roberts Rinehart, although it's likely to be a real-world example of [[Beam Me Up, Scotty]]. The earliest ''verified'' explicit statement of disapproval dates to S.S. Van Dine's 1928 essay [http://gadetection.pbwiki.com/Van+Dine%27s+Twenty+Rules+for+Writing+Detective+Stories "Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories"] (it might be noted that these rules would disqualify the authors who defined the genre, including [[Wilkie Collins]], [[Edgar Allan Poe]], and [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]). [https://web.archive.org/web/20080905201215/http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030926.html This] article explores in detail the origin of this strange semi-existent trope.
It is okay, however, for a butler to be a suspect, primarily to mislead the reader.
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