History Main / WhoDunnitToMe

* In one episode of ''Series/GetSmart'', Maxwell Smart was poisoned by a KAOS agent, and had to race the clock to find the agent and get the cure.

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' is about a [[ArtificialIntelligence Machine]] that can predict murders before they occur. But in the Season 2 episode "In Extremis", a computer virus is starting to affect its performance, so Team Machine arrive too late to stop the VictimOfTheWeek from being poisoned with polonium that will kill him within a day.

** In ''Literature/{{Maskerade}}'', a recently murdered character offers to assist in catching his killer, but [[TheGrimReaper Death]] dissuades him on the grounds that the living generally get uneasy when the deceased takes a constructive role in a murder investigation. "[[AC:They tend to lose concentration.]]"

* ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfDoctorStrange'': Back when Doctor Strange began his career as a sorcerer, he sealed away a portion of his soul in the event of his death, with the result that, after he is murdered by an unknown attacker, this portion would manifest in the present, representing a week of his past that will act to tie up his loose ends and solve the mystery of his death. Unfortunately, this portion of his soul has never been 'updated', with the result that he is ignorant of details of Strange's future such as his current status as Sorcerer Supreme or his membership of the Avengers.

* ''VideoGame/DiscworldNoir'' opens on the protagonist Lewton's grave, and the player must then relive his memories as he tries to piece together the mystery of who murdered him. After the story catches up with itself Lewton is confused that he remembers being stabbed but doesn't remember actually ''dying'', but he reasons that being in a grave confirms that he is dead, or at least undead. It turns out that it is the latter, and Lewton is able to escape and solve the mystery with the help of his new werewolf powers.

* In ''VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles: Madame Fate'', the fortune teller Madame Fate wants to find out which of her

workers is plotting her death at the stroke of midnight. The answer? It's none of them as they are all found to be dead/doomed by midnight. The answer is the ghost of Charles Dalimar, the Big Bad of the series, who only gets involved ''because'' Madame Fate went to the Master Detective for help.

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[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/TheDeathOfDoctorStrange https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deathofdoctorstrange1.png]]]]

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* ''Literature/WhoCensoredRogerRabbit''. Unlike ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', Roger is dead, and his doppelganger (a temporary copy of himself) goes to Eddie to find out who iced the original.

* ''To Live Again'' by Creator/RobertSilverberg is set in a future where the rich commonly back up their minds using BrainUploading, and after a person's death their back-up becomes available to be downloaded into the brain of a living person as a technological SpiritAdvisor. In a subplot, a young woman and her new advisor investigate the death of the advisor's original, which the advisor suspects was the result of foul play.
* ''Literature/TheRook'' features an interesting variation of this; protagonist Myfanwy Thomas received at least four warnings that she would lose her memory in her immediate future, so spent some time preparing notes for her future memory-less self that would allow her to return to her life (or pick up a new one if preferred) and work out who and what was the cause of her amnesia.
* ''Literature/AlteredCarbon'' by Creator/RichardKMorgan is a FilmNoir style thriller, with an investigator hired by the restored backup of an apparent suicide. The victim does not believe that he could have possibly wanted to kill himself; indeed it would be futile given that he was backed up and brought back to life in under 48 hours and instead believes he was murdered and demands justice.
* A story by Jack Vance has the main character kill someone who has discovered his real identity. The backup of the person spends the rest of the book screwing him over while trying to prove that he killed them the first time.

* At the beginning of the ''Literature/TheGoblinReservation'', Peter Maxwell describes how he ended up on another planet during a teleporter transit, with the data stream intercepted by SufficientlyAdvancedAliens, only to be told that the stream isn't just intercepted but ''duplicated'', meaning a Peter Maxwell has already returned to Earth, only to die in a freak accident.
* In ''Literature/AMemoryCalledEmpire'' Mahit has her predecessor Yskandr's VirtualGhost loaded into her brain implant, but that backup is fifteen years out of date and had no idea his original was dead until they saw his corpse, and then had a mental breakdown and went silent. But as Mahit investigates Yskandr's death she gets flashes of his memory. [[spoiler: She eventually does get the version of Yskander that remembers uploaded into her, but at that point the ''who'' is less interesting than the ''why.'']]

* ''Series/WhodunnitUK'': In "Future Imperfect", the VictimOfTheWeek is brought back from the dead by having a robot redirect its 'life force' through him. He solves his own murder but is then killed again by a second attempt before he can announce who done it.
* One of the {{Arc}}s of the third season of ''Series/{{Continuum}}'' was Original Timeline Kira trying to find out why almost the first thing she found when she crossed to the new timeline was New Timeline Kira's body.

[[AC:TabletopGames]]

* In the ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' modules "Continuity" and "Acrimony" the player characters are backups investigating the fates of their originals. While in "Ego Hunter" all of the [=PCs=] are [[MesACrowd forks]] of a single person, who never showed up to re-integrate them.

[[AC:VisualNovel]]

[[AC:{{Anime}}]]

* Given a heartbreaking spin in one of the ''Manga/BlackJack'' anime series: A girl who's given a cornea transplant from another woman who supposedly perished in an accident starts having visions of a man trying to grab her. Everything points out at the dead woman's spirit trying to contact the person who has her original cornea and tell her that she was murdered... except that her death ''was'' a genuine accident, and what the poor woman saw last ''was her boyfriend trying to save her''.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

* This was part of the title character's original motivation in ''ComicBook/{{Ghost|DarkHorseComics}}'' from Creator/DarkHorseComics.
* [[CuteGhostGirl Emily]] from ''ComicBook/AnyasGhost'' wants to find the man that killed her family. Subverted later, where it's revealed there was no murderer. Aside from [[{{Yandere}} Emily]], of course.
* In the original graphic novel ''Film/{{RIPD}}'' this was Nick's motivation for joining the R.I.P.D.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

* The movie ''Film/OhHeavenlyDog'' reverses this, sending back a murdered human in dog form to investigate his death.
* In ''Franchise/RoboCop'', both versions, Alex Murphy tracks down the criminals who all but killed him.
* In ''Film/IRobot'', the protagonist is guided through a murder investigation by pre-programmed holograms left behind by the victim. [[spoiler:{{Subverted|Trope}} as it turns out that the victim actually arranged his own death, intending for the murder investigation to lead the detective to evidence of a real crime.]]
* Trailers for ''Film/TheInvisible'' advertised this as the premise of the movie, [[TrailersAlwaysLie but in the actual film]], the identity of Nick's murderer is never in question, to him or the audience. The film is thus less of a whodunit and more of a character drama.


[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* ''Remember Me'', a novel by Creator/ChristopherPike. Shari begins the novel already dead. She was killed at a party, and being a ghost she must figure out which one of her friends killed her.
* ''Never Trust A Dead Man'' pairs this with ClearMyName and EnemyMine: the protagonist, Selwyn, is forced to cooperate with his murdered [[TheRival rival]] (who has been brought back from the dead in the form of a bat) to find the real murderer and clear Selwyn's name.

* ''Ghost Story'', Book 13 of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', has this as its plot, with a ghostly Harry Dresden trying to find out who killed him, and the more important question of who ordered it done. As it turns out, the answer is...[[MemoryGambit Harry Dresden]]. Also, [[AnAstralProjectionNotAGhost he's not exactly dead]]...
* Creator/JamesHerbert's ''Nobody True'' is told from the POV of a ghost seeking his killer ... who can astrally project to oppose him. In fact, it combines this trope with a subversion of AnAstralProjectionNotAGhost; he only got to find out whodunnit to him because he was off astrally projecting somewhere at the time of death.

* ''Literature/TheVampireFiles'' starts with protagonist Jack Flemming waking up just after his death, and he spends the first novel ''Bloodlist'' figuring out who killed him and why.

* An episode of ''Series/BloodTies2007'' has Vicki's old friend from the police department ask her to solve his murder... before walking through a closed door. It turns out she's the only one who can see him due to her experience in the pilot. Even [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Henry]] can't see him. When they try to find out who killed an undercover officer, they see his body walk around like nothing happened. Their resident occult expert finds out that his body has been taken over by a creature that quickly burns out its hosts before moving on to a new host. They manage to expel and destroy the creature, but the body has been already too burned out, and the guy dies a few minutes later.
* In an episode of ''Series/AlfredHitchcockPresents'' titled "Whodunit" a deceased mystery author talks a recording angel into letting him go back to his last day alive to find out...you know.
* ''Series/DeathInParadise'', Richard Poole has collected evidence to his own murder, knowing exactly who was going to kill him and why.
* ''Series/HotelBeauSejour'', Kato van Hoeven tries to find out who murdered her. Unfortunately, she has no memory of the 24 hours before her death, and only five people can see her ghost, all of who have their own secrets.
* ''Series/GhostsUS'': Alberta is convinced she was murdered and asks Samantha to solve her murder, even though the other ghosts say she just had a heart attack. [[spoiler: In "Alberta's Fan", we learn she was right; her moonshine was poisoned.]]

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[[AC:TabletopGames]]

* ConversationalTroping in one of the vignettes in ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Magic Items 3'', when a private eye in a FantasticNoir world discovers his client is a BrainInAJar, and hopes it's not ''another'' "find my killer" case. (It's not, exactly; it's "find my body".)

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* ''Videogame/MurderedSoulSuspect'', in which a murdered detective becomes a ghost and sets out to solve his own murder.
* In ''VideoGame/ShadowOfDestiny'', a murder victim is revived by a mysterious being who offers him an opportunity to undo his death.

* ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' Most of the plot of Joshua's week was about Neku trying to figure this out. By the end of game it becomes clear that this was because Joshua himself was the murderer.
* Sissel's motivation as the eponymous ghost in ''[[VideoGame/GhostTrick Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective]]'' is not only to find his killer, but to find out who he is in the first place, as ghosts have amnesia when they are formed and slowly remember things over time.

* VideoGame/{{Sonny}}, from the flash game series of the same name, died prior to the first game's start. He cannot remember what happened to him or anything about his life prior death, and wonders who resurrected him and why.
* ''Why Am I Dead?'' features the ability to possess people in order to investigate the main character's death.

[[AC:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/SlightlyDamned'' begins with Rhea already in purgatory, ready to be judged, with no idea how she got there. [[BackFromTheDead She got better]], and there's only so many places that her killer can be...

* [[http://www.missmab.com/Demo/undead.php Rachel-Rebecca the Third]] from ''[[Webcomic/DanAndMabsFurryAdventures DMFA]]'' was a law school student who got murdered. After getting reanimated, she got her own murderer convicted and went on to establish legal rights for TheUndead.
* ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' once [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=297 pointed out]] one of problems with vengeful ghosts.

* Creator/TomKing's ''ComicBook/HumanTarget'' miniseries features this as the driving plot. Christopher Chance, the titular BodyDouble[=/=]detective, gets poisoned while doubling as [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]], putting him on the hunt for whoever tried to murder his client before [[YourDaysAreNumbered the poison kills him in 12 days]].

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

* ''Film/{{DOA}}'', both the 1950 original and the 1988 "remake", a man has been given a slow-acting but irremediable poison, and races to discover who did it and why before it finishes him off.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'':
** "Dead Man Walking". A naval lieutenant walks (somewhat weakly) into NCIS and asks Gibbs to solve a murder. When Gibbs asks whose murder, the lieutenant pulls out a clump of his own hair, revealing that he's been poisoned and needs the team to find out who poisoned him. GenreSavvy Tony makes a comparison by name to ''DOA''.
** Also when Tony gets pneumonic plague, though he doesn't die.
** ''Series/NCISNewOrleans'' used this as well in "The Walking Dead". A naval psychiatrist collapses and is found to have been poisoned with polonium-210 two weeks earlier, and he will be dead in another two weeks.
* In the ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' episode "Subway", a man is pushed off a subway platform in front of an oncoming train. However, instead of being run over, he gets wedged between the train and the edge of the platform. Essentially, the lower half of his body has been crushed, but the organs in his torso are kept in place due to him being pinned. He's dying slowly due to blood poisoning and other issues, but the paramedics say that as soon as they try to remove him, basically everything is going to fall out of his body like a leaky sack and he'll die immediately. This inspired the similar situation in the comic ''Top Ten'', above.
* In the ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'' episode "A Coffin for Starsky," the guys have one day to find out who poisoned Starsky before he dies.
* An early ''Series/CSIMiami'' was about a woman who was poisoned with radioactive materials by a CorruptCorporateExecutive ([[RedHerring or rather]] a level employee who she seduced to get information) because she happened to be the lawyer working the joint lawsuit against their illegal dumping practices.

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko Alexander Litvinenko]] case was apparently RippedFromTheHeadlines in ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent''. Litvenenko is actually mentioned by name.
** A similar, earlier case in which a fight between two Northern European naval personnel ended with one pinning the other with a piece of equipment that discharged a radioactive field, and firing. It was reported that prosecutors were faced with the difficulty of how to press charges, because a fatal dose was delivered, but murder charges could not be pressed because it would take years for the victim to die.
* The ''Series/{{Monk}}'' series finale: Monk is poisoned. They find the culprit fairly quickly, but need the poison. Monk still has a chance to live.
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' is about a [[ArtificialIntelligence Machine]] that can predict murders before they occur. But in the Season 2 episode "In Extremis", a computer virus is starting to affect its performance, so Team Machine arrive too late to stop the VictimOfTheWeek from being poisoned with polonium that will kill him within a day.

* In the ''Series/StarCops'' episode "Conversations with the Dead", a space freighter is knocked off course, with no way of reaching safety or being reached by rescuers before its oxygen supplies give out. The crew of the freighter interact with the cops investigating the incident by radio. [[spoiler: Except it turns out that by a staggeringly improbable coincidence, their ship is carrying some untested experimental [[HumanPopsicle cryosleep chambers]] and the inventor of said devices just ''happens'' to overhear what's going on and steps in to help. Our heroes figure out what's probably going on quite quickly, but since all the evidence is going to take most of a decade to get back to Earth there's not much they can do about it.]]
* The short-lived ''Series/{{Timecop}}'' series had "D.O.A.", where Jack and his boss Matuzek are suddenly killed at night by a car bomb in their headquarters' parking lot. Hemmings uses the time travel equipment to go back to that morning and warn Jack of his impending demise. Jack spends the rest of the episode rushing to put the pieces together, while Matuzek (though trying to help) treats it as his last day alive and takes care of family business. They actually fail to solve the case and appear ready to follow through with history, but their investigation changed things enough to prevent the explosive from being planted. Jack later figures out the culprit was someone he met that day and saves Matuzek from being gunned down in an alley.
** Jack also thought he was the target due to Timecop-related business, but it turned out to be Matuzek due to "ordinary cop" business (even though the culprit knew about time travel).
* Another TimeTravel version is the mini-series ''[=5ive=] Days to Midnight'', when the protagonist is sent a futuristic briefcase by an unknown party, containing a police file on his murder to happen five days later.
* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': In the two-part seaon 6 opener, Rick is exposed to a nerve gas and given 24 hours to live. He and Beckett use the time to attempt to locate the perpetrators and recover the gas and (hopefully) the antidote.
* ''Series/WhodunnitUK'': In "Happy New Year", the VictimOfTheWeek is bitten by a venomous snake. Knowing he has 30 minutes to live, he uses the time to question the suspects.

* ''Series/JakeAndTheFatman'': In "I'm Gonna Live Till I Die", a mousy bookkeeper who's been poisoned spends his last days helping Jake find the rat who did it.

[[AC:Video Game]]

* In ''VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles: Madame Fate'', the fortune teller Madame Fate wants to find out which of her workers is plotting her death at the stroke of midnight. The answer? It's none of them as they are all found to be dead/doomed by midnight. The answer is the ghost of Charles Dalimar, the Big Bad of the series, who only gets involved ''because'' Madame Fate went to the Master Detective for help.

* ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfDoctorStrange'': Back when Doctor Strange began his career as a sorcerer, he sealed away a portion of his soul in the event of his death, with the result that, after he is murdered by an unknown attacker, this portion would manifest in the present, representing a week of his past that will act to tie up his loose ends and solve the mystery of his death. Unfortunately, this portion of his soul has never been 'updated', with the result that he is ignorant of details of Strange's future such as his current status as Sorcerer Supreme or his membership of the Avengers.

The protagonist has been murdered and is either [[DeadToBeginWith dead]] or [[YourDaysAreNumbered soon will be]]. The rest of the story concerns their efforts to solve the crime [[LivingOnBorrowedTime in the time they have left]]. A subplot can also be their trying to protect a loved one from the killer who did them in. This can be supernatural or non-supernatural depending on whether the protagonist is already dead or dying slowly but inevitably. If he or she is already dead, may involve NearDeathClairvoyance, otherwise may be considered a form of DeathByOriginStory. They may also possibly be [[OurGhostsAreDifferent hanging around as a ghost]] with UnfinishedBusiness, hopefully a FriendlyGhost but a decent chance of the [[VengefulGhost unfriendly]] [[MurderIntoMalevolence kind]].

* In the''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' episode "Subway", a man is pushed off a subway platform in front of an oncoming train. However, instead of being run over, he gets wedged between the train and the edge of the platform. Essentially, the lower half of his body has been crushed, but the organs in his torso are kept in place due to him being pinned. He's dying slowly due to blood poisoning and other issues, but the paramedics say that as soon as they try to remove him, basically everything is going to fall out of his body like a leaky sack and he'll die immediately. This inspired the similar situation in the comic ''Top Ten'', above.

The protagonist has been murdered and is either [[DeadToBeginWith dead]] or [[YourDaysAreNumbered soon will be]]. The rest of the story concerns their efforts to solve the crime [[LivingOnBorrowedTime in the time they have left]]. A subplot can also be their trying to protect a loved one from the killer who did them in. This can be supernatural or non-supernatural depending on whether the protagonist is already dead or dying slowly but inevitably. If he or she is already dead, may involve NearDeathClairvoyance, otherwise may be considered a form of DeathByOriginStory.

Compare DiscoveringYourOwnDeadBody, as this tends to be part of the evidence in the case.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' had this as a significant plot point throughout Series 6, with the Doctor being "killed" in Utah in the first episode and having to find out why and by whom he was murdered, and the threads of it carried over into Series 7, as The Doctor now knew WHO did it, but was still trying to figure out the specifics of WHY, a question which was finally answered in the Christmas special "[[RecapDoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor The Time of the Doctor]]".

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' had this as a significant plot point throughout Series 6, with the Doctor being "killed" in Utah in the first episode and having to find out why and by whom he was murdered, and the threads of it carried over into Series 7, as The Doctor now knew WHO did it, but was still trying to figure out the specifics of WHY, a question which was finally answered in the Christmas special [[DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor ''Time of the Doctor'']].

* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'': "Random Shoes". Eugene's ghost follows the Torchwood crew around as they investigate his death. He manages to appear briefly to his family before [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascending to a Higher Plane of Existence]].

* An episode of ''Series/BloodTies'' has Vicki's old friend from the police department ask her to solve his murder... before walking through a closed door. It turns out she's the only one who can see him due to her experience in the pilot. Even [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Henry]] can't see him. When they try to find out who killed an undercover officer, they see his body walk around like nothing happened. Their resident occult expert finds out that his body has been taken over by a creature that quickly burns out its hosts before moving on to a new host. They manage to expel and destroy the creature, but the body has been already too burned out, and the guy dies a few minutes later.

* In the''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' episode "Subway", a man was pushed off a subway platform in front of an oncoming train. However, instead of being run over, he was wedged between the train and the edge of the platform. Essentially, the lower half of his body has been crushed, but the organs in his torso are kept in place due to him being pinned. He's dying slowly due to blood poisoning and other issues, but the paramedics say that as soon as they try to remove him, basically everything is going to fall out of his body like a leaky sack and he'll die immediately. This inspired the similar situation in the comic ''Top Ten'', above.

[[AC:{{ComicBooks}}]]

* ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'', episode "Subway".

* An episode of ''Series/BloodTies'' has Vicki's old friend from the police department ask her to solve his murder... before walking through a closed door. It turns out she's the only one who can see him due to her experience in the pilot. Even [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Henry]] can't see him. When they try to find out who killed an undercover officer, they see his body walk around like nothing happened. Their resident occult expert finds out that he his body has been taken over by a creature that quickly burns out its hosts before moving on to a new host. They manage to expel and destroy the creature, but the body has been already too burned out, and the guy dies a few minutes later.

* ''Literature/{{Noob}}'' is mostly set in a {{MMORPG}} in which the avatar's permanent banishment is a frequent punishment for breaking the game's rules. In the third novel, Gaea ends up in a FrameUp for something that should have gotten her avatar perma-banned on the spot. It turns out to be still usable thanks to a little help from TheCracker (a frequent business partner of hers), who warns her that what he did to protect her avatar from the game's autorities won't last forever. She decides to use the time she has to figure out who the real guilty party is. Fortunately, the guilty party in question was pratically waiting around the corner to gloat to her about it and got CaughtOnTape.