Ten Little Murder Victims: Difference between revisions

Named after the 1939 [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]] novel formerly titled [[And Then There Were None|Ten Little Indians]].

 

 

== General outcomes of this plot ==

* B: One person knows his job well, but he's a little high-strung. He accuses a lot of people of being [[The Mole]] on shaky grounds. If it doesn't turn out that ''he's'' the Mole (which is a little too obvious, and therefore rare), odds are [[Acquitted Too Late|the real Mole's going to kill him]].

* C: One person is very competent and helpful. He'll even have some extra skills that are handy for just the room in which they are locked. He might even find clues as to [[The Mole]]'s identity. At some point, he'll save the hero's life. He's [[The Mole]], and he's really very good at it.

* Possibly the [[Trope Codifier|ultimate literary example]]: Agatha Christie's ''[[And Then There Were None]]'', a.k.a. ''10 Little Indians''. [[The Mole]] is {{spoiler|Justice Wargrave.}}

* In the ''[[Star Trek]]'' novel ''Kobiyashi Maru'' this was a training scenario for Starfleet cadets. Several dozen cadets were dropped on an abandoned moonbase, and told that one of them was [[The Mole]]. Their teachers then sat back and watched what the cadets did. Typical behavior was to band together into small groups, and end up fighting against other groups because one of them could be [[The Mole]]. Chekhov's solution was to simply kill EVERYONE (at the end of the training, all his victims assumed he was the Mole. He thought he was the winner. The teachers explained he was simply a very skilled assassin (and a bit of an idiot)). Turns out there was no Mole, the scenario was designed to emphasize the dangers of distrust and paranoia. He was then told that his hero, a young captain named Kirk, had come up with a working solution; he invited all groups to join his, but the condition for joining was that everyone would be disarmed. The exception were two guards selected by Kirk; if one of them happened to be [[The Mole]], the other could just shoot the guy.

* Used to some extent in ''[[Dune]]'', with a letter throwing transparently false suspicion on Jessica. No one in House Atreides suspects Yueh of being [[The Mole]] at all, though he's already been identified as such in the narrative (it's presented as a mind-blowing revelation in-universe due to his loyalty conditioning).

* A major plot thread in the second ''[[Mistborn]]'' book-it appears for much of the book that one of the main characters has been replaced by a kandra, a creature that can consume a corpse then animate it and imitate the person in question almost perfectly. Despite assistance from her own kandra, it takes Vin most of the book to figure out who it was. As was stated on the main Mistborn page, [[The Reveal]] is quite brilliant.

 

== Western Animation ==

* A ''[[Futurama]]'' episode, "Anthology of Interest I" features a story entitled "Dial L For Leela" that features this.

* The ''[[Scooby Doo]]'' episode "A Night of Fright is No Delight" (the one with the {{spoiler|[[Funny Money|Confederate money]]}}.)

* An episode of ''[[Police Academy]]'' featured "Agatha Crusty" and "Ten Little Coppers".

* ''[[Family Guy]]'' took on this one in "And Then There Were Fewer". {{spoiler|It was [[Clue (Tabletop Game)|Diane Simmons in the dining room, the living room, the upstairs hallway, and an upstairs balcony]] with, respectively, the gun, the knife, and the Golden Globe}}.