Whodunit - Topics

Alibis and timetables are the load-bearing structure of a whodunit The clue that only makes sense after you know the answer is a trick and not a puzzle The amateur sleuth setup quietly requires a closed community where everyone is a plausible suspect Whodunit asks who and howdunit asks how yet most crime novels answer how first Being the prime suspect is the only honest reason an amateur detective starts poking around The reveal scene in a whodunit where everyone is summoned into one room Double bluff: the whodunit that names the killer early so you stop believing it Building a locked room mystery around a window that only looks shut A suspect list is a filter and each clue should remove one name Fair-play clue puzzles show you the killer's mistake early and almost nobody catches it The false confession in a whodunit and how it resets the reader's suspicion What a whodunit withholds from the reader and whether that counts as cheating Why the least likely suspect in a whodunit stopped being the murderer The closed circle of suspects in a whodunit is a formal rule and not a convenience The sidekick in a whodunit exists to ask the question the reader is already asking Floor plans and family trees at the front of a whodunit Fair play in a whodunit: every clue the detective uses has to appear on the page first Whodunit films after Knives Out: a real revival or a franchise effect?