History Literature / MurderMysteries

* AlwaysMurder: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin It's right there in the title folks.]]
* ComicBookAdaptation: P. Craig Russel drew one of these for Dark Horse, which is ironic because the story seems to be set in the DCU [[note]]The Silver City is from DC Comics and Lucifer has a lot of similarities to his portrayal in Neil Gaiman's Sandman.[[/note]]

* MindScrew: [[spoiler:Did the man murder Tink and everyone else in the apartment? What did Raguel give him? How much of this is God controlling? What happens to the narrator in the elevator? There's a lot to screw your mind within here.]] WordOfGod: [[spoiler:Yes, it was a murder, as it's all in the title]]

* AdaptationDistillation: The radio drama.

* GodIsEvil: Or at the very least a bit of a jerk.

* HiddenInPlainSight: [[spoiler:God]]

* PowerFloats: Lucifer and Raguel both demonstrate this.

* StartOfDarkness: For Lucifer.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Technically it's silver with a hint of sea-mist, but Lucifer qualifies.

[[quoteright:302:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1574534742_01_LZZZZZZZ_8080.jpg]]
"Murder Mysteries" is a short story by Creator/NeilGaiman which was adapted first into an audio drama for the [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci Fi Channel]] website's Seeing Ear Theatre and then into a Dark Horse graphic novel illustrated by P. Craig Russell.

The story is divided into two main layers. The first is a framing narrative that focuses on a British man (the narrator) remembering his younger years when he was stuck in Los Angeles while trying to get back home. During his stopover he briefly hooks up with an old flame named Tink, and after leaving her apartment he meets an older man who tells him a story in exchange for some cigarettes. The older man tells the narrator of when he was the angel Raguel, the embodiment of God's vengeance, and of his investigation of the first murder in the history of existence after the body of another angel, Carasel, was discovered dead in the Silver City. Along the way he interacts with several other members of the divine hierarchy, including a pre-fallen Lucifer.

The conclusion of the story is, not too surprising for Neil, a bit of a MindScrew. The ending can be interpreted different ways, and Gaiman himself provides an answer (see below), but it's hard to pin things down definitively.

* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Sort of, angels have specific roles, which sometimes seem to posses them.

* FairPlayWhodunnit: It is pretty obvious that [[spoiler: Saraquael had something to do with the murder]] even before TheReveal.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: Almost everything the narrator says during the first part of the story, depending on one's interpretation.]]

* {{Gone Horribly Right}}: Of course Raguel eventually figures out [[spoiler: that Zephkiel is actually God - Raguel was created to be an investigator, after all. Unfortunately, Raguel makes the connection a little too late, but God had not intended him to figure out that he was {{the Chessmaster}} behind the actual murder.]]
* HaveYouSeenMyGod: The angels seem to be working without ever actually knowing where God is, but [[spoiler: Raguel finds Him in the end.]]

* ManipulativeBastard: [[spoiler:Zephkiel, aka God. By the end it's clear that the murder was a multi-stage BatmanGambit, with the eventual goal being to provoke Lucifer's fall from Heaven. In the end, only Raguel is able to put the pieces together, and he is thoroughly disgusted.]]
* MindScrew: [[spoiler: Did the man murder Tink and everyone else in the apartment? What did Raguel give him? How much of this is God controlling? What happens to the narrator in the elevator? There's a lot to screw your mind with in here.]] WordOfGod: [[spoiler:Yes, it was a murder, as it's all in the title]]
* OmniscientMoralityLicense: The only way [[spoiler: for God to not come off as an absolute bastard for His {{plan}}.]]

* ThePlan: [[spoiler: God appears to be running one of these.]]

* SympatheticMurderer: It's pretty hard to not empathize with [[spoiler: Saraquael.]] Hell, even Lucifer sheds tears for him.
* UnreliableNarrator: The narrator often mentions that he remembers certain things with crystal clarity and others not at all. [[spoiler:There's a reason for this, but what it might be is down to interpretation.]]

* {{Asexuality}}: Subverted. You would think that angels, especially ones without genitals would be incapable of sexual desire or activity. You would be wrong.

* {{Gone Horribly Right}}: Of course Raguel eventually figures out [[spoiler: that Zephkiel is actually God - Raguel was created to be an investigator, after all. Unfortunately, Raguel makes the connection a little too late, but God had not intended him to figure out his plan at all.]]

[[quoteright:302:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1574534742_01_LZZZZZZZ_8080.jpg]] '''"Murder Mysteries"''' is a short story by Creator/NeilGaiman which was adapted first into an audio drama for the [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci Fi Channel]] website's Seeing Ear Theatre and then into a Dark Horse graphic novel illustrated by P. Craig Russell.

[[quoteright:302:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1574534742_01_LZZZZZZZ_8080.jpg]] '''"Murder Mysteries"''' is a short story by Creator/NeilGaiman which was adapted first into an audio drama for the SciFiChannel website's Seeing Ear Theatre and then into a Dark Horse graphic novel illustrated by P. Craig Russell.

[[quoteright:302:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1574534742_01_LZZZZZZZ_8080.jpg]] '''"Murder Mysteries"''' is a short story by NeilGaiman which was adapted first into an audio drama for the SciFiChannel website's Seeing Ear Theatre and then into a Dark Horse graphic novel illustrated by P. Craig Russell.

* [[spoiler: GodIsEvil]]: Or at the very least a bit of a jerk.

* HiddenInPlainSight: [[spoiler: God]]
* [[spoiler: LaserGuidedAmnesia:]] [[spoiler: Possibly]]
* [[spoiler: LoveMakesYouEvil:]] [[spoiler: Saraquael murders Carasel because he cannot bear the pain of loving him and not being loved back.]]

* HeyItsThatVoice: Michael Emerson, best known for his role as Ben Linus on ''Series/{{Lost}}'', is the narrator in the radio play adaptation.

* HeyItsThatVoice: Michael Emerson, best known for his role as Ben Linus on ''{{Lost}}'', is the narrator in the radio play adaptation.

* ComicBookAdaptation: P. Craig Russel drew one of these for Dark Horse, which is ironic because the story seems to be set in the DCU [[note]]The Silver City is from DC Comics and Lucifer has a lot of similarities to his portrayal in [[Sandman]].[[/note]]

* ComicBookAdaptation: P. Craig Russel drew one of these for Dark Horse, which is ironic because the story seems to be set in the DCU [[note]]The Silver City is from DC Comics and Lucifer has a lot of similarities to his portrayal in Sandman.[[/note]].