Reader’s Digest
be inaccurate and provide the
perpetrator an alibi.TRICK: Suppose a group of people see
a person plummet to death from the
seventh floor of a high-rise, but they
see no one else in the balcony. Adding
two and two together, they conclude
that the person committed suicide.
However, they may have failed to
notice the wily trick or setup the cul-
prit used to disguise the murder as a
suicide. A trick, then, is a crafty, elabo-
rate mechanism that allows a criminal
to commit their deeds while fooling
investigators and witnesses alike.RED HERRING: The criminal under-
stands that the detective is closing in
on them. Their escape plans have long
failed, and the facade cannot be main-
tained any longer. As a last resort, they
hit upon the devious plan of leaving
false, misleading hints that will impli-
cate innocent members of the cast, and
allow themselves to make a getaway.
These false clues or hints are red her-
rings. Funnily enough, if an overper-
ceptive detective misinterprets a clue
and is led to a wrong solution without
the culprit’s interference, it can also
qualify as a red herring.DYING MESSAGE: A particularly fa-
vourite trope among mystery authors,
this can take different forms: a scrawl
on the floor, a bloodied piece of paper
with letters/codes, or the direction
in which their fingers point. Dyingmessages offer various plot possibili-
ties: A murderer may decide to alter the
message if they spot it, the investigators
may misinterpret it or a character may
decide not to reveal the meaning of the
message, even if they realize it.FALSE/FAKE SOLUTION: This is a
scenario where detectives show off
their knowledge by presenting different
solutions to the crime for the readers
and the characters—usually all varia-
tions except the correct one. While this
is usually a humorous trope, in special
circumstances, this can be cleverly
used by a private eye to lull the crimi-
nal into a false sense of security, lead-
ing them to make a mistake, leaving
damning evidence.IMPOSSIBLE CRIME: This is an oxy-
moron really, since a crime once com-
mitted is clearly possible. Yet, it is used
to describe an outré crime that, at first
glance, seems absolutely impossible.104 september 2019