Whodunit

A mystery story structured around discovering who committed a crime. Its plot withholds the culprit’s identity while presenting clues that allow the solution to be inferred.

Detective fiction: A genre of fiction centered on investigating and solving crimes. Whodunits are a central form of detective fiction, organized around identifying a culprit.
Crime scene: A place where a crime occurred or where evidence related to it can be found. Physical traces at the scene often anchor the investigator’s reconstruction.
Edgar Allan Poe: An American writer whose fiction and poetry helped shape several modern literary genres. Poe’s Dupin stories established an influential model for solving fictional crimes through reasoning.
Howcatchem: A crime story that reveals the perpetrator early and focuses on how investigators prove the case. Unlike a whodunit, it makes guilt known before the investigation reaches its conclusion.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles: Agatha Christie’s 1920 novel introducing detective Hercule Poirot. Its country-house murder and clue-driven solution became a defining early example of Christie’s puzzle mysteries.
Clue: A piece of evidence or information that helps solve a problem or mystery. A whodunit uses clues to make its hidden solution inferable.
Alibi: Evidence or a claim that a person was elsewhere when an event occurred. Testing alibis eliminates suspects or exposes inconsistencies in their accounts.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue: An 1841 short story by Edgar Allan Poe featuring the detective C. Auguste Dupin. Often treated as an early foundational detective story, it makes an impossible-seeming murder a puzzle.
Inverted detective story: A detective story that discloses the crime and culprit early, then follows the investigation toward proof. Its suspense comes from the route to conviction, not from guessing who committed the crime.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: Agatha Christie’s 1926 detective novel featuring Hercule Poirot and an influential narrative revelation. Its narration makes the reader reassess how a whodunit can conceal information.

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