The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much/Playing With
Basic Trope: A murder is covered up by having the coroner claim some other (implausible) cause of death.
- Straight: Alice is found lying face down on a mattress with a knife in her back. The coroner's report states that her death was an accident.
- Exaggerated: Alice is found full of holes in a house shot full of holes. The coroner's report states that her death was by natural causes.
- Downplayed: Alice is found dead with a knife in her chest such that it is possible that her death could have been an accident. A few characters actually believe it.
- Justified: The local government wished to make an example of Alice in a way they could plausibly deny to neighboring states.
- Inverted: Alice commits suicide. Investigators look for her murderer.
- Subverted: Alice frames Bob for murder by stabbing herself in the back with a knife with Bob's fingerprints on them...
- Double Subverted: ...except that Bob actually did it, counting on the coroner knowing that Alice wanted to frame Bob.
- Parodied: In the aftermath of a bank heist, the police conclude that the money committed suicide.
- Zig Zagged: The coroner originally assigned to the investigation goes missing, and his replacement returns a verdict of suicide. When the original coroners notes are discovered, however...
- Averted: The coroner correctly identifies the cause of death as homicide.
- Enforced: The coroner does this regularly on corpses of the opposition because the oppressive majority secretly called for it.
- Lampshaded: "Certainly it is impossible that any two reasonable persons would disagree on the cause of the death, then."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Beth, the coroner, resists the pressure to cover up the crime and reports her findings honestly.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Back to The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much.