History Main / AlwaysMurder

* ''TurnaboutSubstitution'' provides an interesting example. You'll know full well before you start playing that someone ''will'' end up dead, since this is an VisualNovel/AceAttorney fangame. During the first day of the trial, you sucessfully prove that [[spoiler:Judge Chambers did not kill Robert Elemeyer and that Enlemeyer is still alive.]] It looks like nobody dies after all... until [[spoiler:Judge Chambers is found dead near his brother's grave.]] The second day of the trial has you defending a (supposed) serial killer of his death.

** Indeed, the one case Phoenix took that wasn't a murder [[spoiler:turned out to be a cover for a murder across town]]. Maya lampshades this in the 3rd game:

** In ''Ace Attorney Investigations'', the third case [[spoiler: starts out as a kidnapping, until someone ends up dead. He turns out to be a kidnapper. Sort of.]]

** Not ALL cases involve murders though. For example, case 1:3 has a death of a man that seems like a homicide [[spoiler: but was actually manslaughter in self-defence]], and in case 2:3 the death of the Ringmaster [[spoiler: was manslaughter as well]]. In fact in Rise from the Ashes, its played straight then it subverts itself then it SUBVERTS THE SUBVERT when the death of Neil Marshall is [[spoiler:thought]] to be a murder by Darke but turns out to be [[spoiler: manslaughter by Ema made to look like murder that then later turns out to be a set up the real murderer to make the original actual murder look like manslaughter.]] In other words it was a [[spoiler:murder made to look like manslaughter made to look like a murder]].

** This trope is averted in ''MyLittleInvestigations'', making it LighterAndSofter than [[AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth the original game it's based on]].

* In the MrsMurphyMysteries there is always murder, and often other crimes as well.

* ''{{Dragnet}}'' managed to avoid this trope by rotating Joe Friday and his various partners through all divisions of the LAPD. As a result they proved it was possible to craft a compelling half-hour of television about a hunt for a shoplifter.
** ''{{Adam-12}}'', a ''Dragnet'' spinoff also managed to avoid this trope in showing the average working day of two regular cops. Of course, when they didn't avoid it, as in the famous episode ''Requiem For A Pig'', it really hits home.

** Surprisingly, this trope is averted in ''MyLittleInvestigations''.

-->--''Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories, Rule 7''

* Look to ''The6thDay'', an action thriller about identity theft due to clones.
* Averted in ''MysteryTeam''; their case is the first murder they've ever solved. Justified in that they're "kid" detectives in the vein of EncyclopediaBrown or TheHardyBoys.

* Averted in ''Hetty Wainthropp Investigates'' where, more realistically than ''MurderSheWrote'', the [[LittleOldLadyInvestigates little-old-lady PI]] generally doesn't investigate murders. Sometimes her cases tie into a murder. It is not a murder she's investigating, however, but something related - e.g., {{blackmail}}.

* [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in one episode of ''LifeOnMars'', in which [[spoiler:it seems like a man working in a factory has been brutally slashed to death, and one older worker confesses to murdering him and trying to cover it up. It turns out that actually, the wounds the man died of line up to one big, whip-like blow, made when the metal-reinforced, leather belt on his machine snapped. The 'murderer' tried to cover up what really happened so that the mill wouldn't be shut down, because the workers were in a union dispute and had no job security.]]

* In ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', a series where most deaths have supernatural causes, this is averted in "The Body" where [[spoiler:Buffy's mother]] dies from natural causes. Xander suspected Glory was behind it, but this was disregarded because if Glory was behind it she would have made sure they knew it.

** Also, without fail, by the end of the episode, regardless of how his character is written as, the bad guy will often either pull a gun on Monk or try to kill him any other way.

* In ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', a series where most deaths have supernatural causes, this is averted in "The Body" where Buffy's mother dies from natural causes. Xander suspected Glory was behind it, but this was disregarded because if Glory was behind it she would have made sure they knew it.

* The online game ''Sleuth'' has you create and play a private detective. Apparently though, the only crime you ever investigate is murder. Every case is a murder, with nary a blackmailing or kidnapping or stakeout in sight.

* In ''{{Monk}}'' it is justified in that Monk is both an ex-Homicide detective and private consultant the San Francisco Police Department call in for more... interesting cases. But, even then, even when Monk ends up investigating/or otherwise wrapped up in something that isn't murder, someone will usually end up dead anyway.

** Natalie said it best; "everywhere you go, every time you turn around, someone is killing someone else!"

* In ''{{Monk}}'' it is justified in that Monk is both a Homicide Detective and a Special Consultant that the police call in for more... interesting cases. But, even then, even when Monk ends up investigating/or otherwise wrapped up in something that isn't murder, someone will usually end up dead anyway.

** Also, without fail, by the end of the episode, regardless of how his character is written as, the bad guy will always either pull a gun on Monk or try to kill him any other way.

* ''MurderSheWrote'', appropriately to its title, plays this painfully straight in every single episode. Jessica Fletcher was an [[AmateurSleuth incidental bystander]] for twelve seasons and six TV-movies.

* Averted in ''MysteryTeam''; their case is the first murder they've ever solved.

* RaymondChandler's ''The Big Sleep'' starts as a fairly simple blackmail case, but it's not long before someone dies.

->''"There simply must be a corpse in a detective novel, and [[DeaderThanDead the deader the corpse the better]]. No lesser crime than murder will suffice. Three hundred pages is far too much pother for a crime other than murder. After all, the reader's trouble and expenditure of energy must be rewarded.''

* In the ''LauraBow'' games, various people commit various crimes which always end in murder.