History Main / CriminalMindGames

* Creator/GKChesterton's very first ''Literature/FatherBrown'' mystery, ''The Blue Cross'' subverted this in two ways: first because the clues themselves were meaningless, and second that it wasn't the criminal leaving them.

* In all incarnations of ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'', this is ComicBook/TheRiddler's modus operandi; other Batman villains, like The Joker, have also done it.

->''"I pull that trigger two seconds earlier and Wallenberg would be here to see his kid play. Instead, I got some dead man robbing jewellery stores and sending me haikus."''

->''"If I had pulled the trigger two seconds earlier, Wallenberg would be here to see his kid play. Instead, I got some dead man robbing jewelry stores and sending me haikus."''

* ''Series/{{Bones}}'' did this with serial killer [[spoiler: Howard Epps.]] It also had the protagonists prepared to pursue far more elaborate puzzles than Epps was actually leaving them, before one of their number realizes they've "endowed" him with brains he doesn't have.

%%* ''Film/AlongCameASpider''. %% ZeroContextExample

%% * The Creator/JamesPatterson novel ''Literature/AlongCameASpider''. %% ZeroContextExample

-->'''The Fisher King''': (confronting Elle Greenaway [[TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive in her home]] after she breaks his one rule of "only the BAU team must do this quest" after she does a press conference with a gun) ''[[BerserkButton ONE RULE!!! THERE WAS ONLY ONE RULE!!!]]'' [{HeroKiller I TOLD YOU THAT THIS WAS IMPORTANT!!!]] (shoots Elle, [[SmashToBlack cut to cliffhanger]]).

--'''The Fisher King''': (confronting Elle Greenaway [[TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive in her home]] after she breaks his one rule of "only the BAU team must do this quest" after she does a press conference with a gun) ''[[BerserkButton ONE RULE!!! THERE WAS ONLY ONE RULE!!!]]'' [{HeroKiller I TOLD YOU THAT THIS WAS IMPORTANT!!!]] (shoots Elle, [[SmashToBlack cut to cliffhanger]]).

** They do it all again the next season with Mr. Yang's partner, Mr. Yin. [[spoiler:Who happens to be Mr. Yin's parent. This time, Shawn [[ConsultingAConvictedKiller has Yin as an ally so he can consult her at any time]], but [[ZigZaggedTrope she's so crazy that the information she provides Shawn]] is also concealed behind elaborate riddles. When Shawn tells her that she's making them waste their time and they need the information ''now'', Yin gives Shawn a flat look and says:]]
-->'''Yin''': [[ComplexityAddiction That is not how my mind works.]]

* In the season 3 finale of ''Series/{{Psych}}'' Shawn faces the Yin-Yang Killer, who only rarely resurfaces to screw with star cops -- by kidnapping a victim and leaving stopwatches and clues, with the victim dying when the star cop fails to solve the clues in time. When the Yin-Yang killer targets Shawn, Shawn gets caught up in the killer's clues, and [[spoiler: then he realizes that is what the killer wants and pretends to give up.]] Eventually the killer is revealed to be [[spoiler: a very crazy looking Ally Sheedy.]]

** They do it all again the next season with Mr. Yang's partner, Mr. Yin.

* ''Series/TheFive'': Jakob Morosi, a convicted serial killer doing life, appears to entertain himself by messing with the family of Jesse Wells and the police by falsely claiming he killed Jesse then leading them on a wild goose chase for the body.

* In the movie ''Film/IRobot'', the [[spoiler:"murder" ''victim'']] does this, the initial clue being [[spoiler:[[ThanatosGambit his own "murder"]]]], ostensibly to reveal his secret to the hero without tipping off a [[spoiler:ThreeLawsCompliant AI with SinisterSurveillance]] in time to prevent a [[spoiler:ZerothLawRebellion]]. (Yeah, the ''movie'' did something clever and subversive. )

* The Creator/JamesPatterson novel ''Literature/AlongCameASpider''.

* ''Film/AlongCameASpider''.

* An episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'' had a copycat serial killer taunt the squad with puzzles just as the original killer had.

* ''Series/{{Charmed}}'': A group of demons perpetrates a series of attacks using an Alice in Wonderland theme. The justification is that the Charmed sisters have recently faked their own death, and the demons have a theory that they are still alive and won't be able to resist investigating murders if there's a fairytale theme to give it that extra captivating interest.

** In "The Janus List", extreme complexity ''was'' the point. He was too emotionally invested in the list to just hand it over; the puzzles were a test by which the recipient would prove they were worthy of the information.

* ''Series/{{NUMB3RS}}'': Usually the clues require advanced mathematics to unravel, since the show's Aesop is that Maths is useful and mathematicians are like superheroes -- with maths. "The Janus List" [[GambitRoulette took this to ridiculous extremes]]. Supposedly, the whole point of the exercise was to give the FBI a list of double agents, but the character who had the list made it all but impossible for the FBI to find it. [[spoiler:To be fair, this also hid the list from double (triple?) agent Colby Granger -- but routes much more direct were available.]]

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