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16->'''Chief Wiggum:''' Hey, I crack cases all the time. Like the case of the symphony conductor who murdered his star cellist.\
17'''Lou:''' That was an episode of ''Series/{{Columbo}}'', chief. They show you who the bad guy is at the beginning of each one.\
18'''Wiggum:''' Yeah, but you have to '''remember!'''
19-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' [[note]]Referencing [[Recap/ColumboS02E01 a specific episode]] of ''Columbo''[[/note]]
20
21Also known as the "open mystery" or "Howcatchem"; a style of CrimeAndPunishmentSeries show popularized by ''Series/{{Columbo}}'', which used this setup for nearly every episode.
22
23The traditional mystery challenges the viewer to solve the mystery along with the detective. Usually, the viewer is disadvantaged by the fact that the detective knows more than the viewer (WeWouldHaveToldYouBut; TomatoSurprise; CluelessMystery). Sometimes, the viewer gets to see all the clues along with the detective; that is FairPlayWhodunnit. But in the Reverse Whodunnit, the advantage goes to the viewer: we actually get to ''see'' the murder as it is committed.
24
25The "mystery" for the viewer is not "who is the murderer?" but instead "how will he/she get caught?." After the beginning of the episode, the audience will know the perpetrator, the crime scene, the murder, and sometimes the motive, perhaps in more detail than the detective will ''ever'' know. For the viewer, the question is: how will the detective solve what appears to be [[ThePerfectCrime a perfect crime]]?
26
27A successful Reverse Whodunnit requires a very intelligent criminal, capable of designing a crime complex enough that its solution remains interesting even if you already know who did it and why.
28
29It also requires a far cleverer detective than you can get away with in a standard Whodunnit, because the writers can not rely so much on misdirection to make his job look hard. For example, solving any ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' mystery would be trivial if Velma let the audience get a good look at the clues instead of hiding them until TheSummation.
30
31Sometimes called a "procedural" (not to be confused with the PoliceProcedural), because its focus is on the ''procedure'' rather than the ''solution''.
32
33This was probably invented by R. Austin Freeman in 1912, in a short story collection which featured Literature/DrThorndyke. He called this concept the 'inverted detective story'.
34
35A subtrope of InternalReveal. Compare and Contrast both CluelessMystery and FairPlayWhodunnit.
36----
37!!Examples:
38
39[[foldercontrol]]
40
41[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
42* The [[LongRunners long-running]] manga ''Manga/CaseClosed'' does these occasionally to mix things up. Although showing the audience the crime itself is rare, often there's only one likely suspect from Conan's point of view, and he has to figure out how they set up a false alibi.
43* In ''Manga/DeathNote'', [[VillainProtagonist the main character]] is secretly an infamous mass murderer and the series follows his attempts to avoid suspicion from the police and a few genius detectives. An odd in-universe example with [[HeroAntagonist L]], who has heavy suspicion of Light being Kira throughout the series, but since he can't just arrest him without hard evidence he plots for Light to reveal himself through one way or another.
44* In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'', Kira is revealed almost immediately after his introduction to be the SerialKiller who murdered Reimi (along with many other victims in the town of Morioh), but the protagonists don't know until he slips up when Shigechi accidentally takes [[ALoveToDismember one of his severed hands]] due to it being in an identical bag to his sandwich. [[spoiler:It goes even further when Kira murders and steals the identity of another man: we get several scenes, and even a VillainEpisode, of him attempting to fit in with his new "family", while trying to resist the urge to kill, but the protagonists are left unaware of his new identity until the very last fight.]]
45* ''Manga/{{Monster}}'': In this instance, the hero himself knows who the killer is for almost the entire series, it's just finding and capturing him that's the problem.
46* ''Manga/{{MW}}'' has Meguro having guessed right that Michio Yuki is the Serial Kidnapper.
47* In the ''Manga/{{Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney|2007}}'' manga's first case, the killer is shown in silhouette in the prologue section after the murder.
48[[/folder]]
49
50[[folder:Comic Strips]]
51* This is the basic premise in the mystery comic strip ''ComicStrip/LanceLawson''. In each installment Lance outright states who the culprit is, and the reader is challenged to guess what tipped Lance off to their guilt.
52[[/folder]]
53
54[[folder: Fan Works]]
55* As befitting a ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' fanfic, the ''Columbo''/''Literature/{{Worm}}'' crossover ''Fanfic/JustOneMoreThingMrAnders'' is a reverse-whodunnit, starting with the murder of the supervillain Purity by her husband Max Anders (himself also known as the supervillain Kaiser), and then following Lieutenant Columbo's investigation of the murder from the viewpoint of the murderer.
56[[/folder]]
57
58[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
59* ''WesternAnimation/WhoKilledWho'' plays this for laughs. The cartoon starts off with a live-action figure explaining how the medium of the animated cartoon will depict a murder in demonstrating how crime does not pay. When the cartoon detective captures the suspect and unmasks him, it turns out to be the live-action guy.
60[[/folder]]
61
62[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
63!!By Creator:
64* The Creator/AlfredHitchcock films ''Film/DialMForMurder'' and ''Film/{{Rope}}''.
65
66!!By Title:
67* In ''Film/TheBigStore'', we already know who (and why) tried to whack Tommy Rogers. Rogers owns a large share of the department store and plans on selling it so that it can be replaced with a music conservatory. The store's manager Mr. Grover tries to have Rogers assassinated so that he can pocket the shares before he can sell them. Not only that, but he plans on doing the same thing to Martha after he marries her.
68* ''[[Film/{{Fracture 2007}} Fracture]]'': "I killed my wife...Prove it."
69* ''Film/{{Frequency}}'' has shades of this. Although, it's less a howcatchem than a howproveit. The main characters find out who the killer is fairly early on...the problem is, they only find this out by collaborating over a 30-year time gap (they can communicate via ham radio). So, they somehow have to prove who the killer is to the cops, with evidence the cops will actually believe.
70* Subverted in ''Film/KnivesOut'', where we're seemingly given TheReveal at the end of the first act. [[spoiler:Harlan's death actually ''was'' a suicide, brought on after his nurse Marta mixed up his medicine and accidentally shot him up with a fatal dose of morphine, leading him to [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled end his life on his own terms]] so that Marta's life and career wouldn't be ruined by a case of malpractice.]] Except... [[GreatDetective Benoit Blanc]] realizes that not everything adds up about this. [[spoiler:It turns out that it ''was'' a normal whodunit after all -- Ransom deliberately mixed up the medicine so that Marta would accidentally kill Harlan, then removed the naloxone (a treatment for opioid overdoses) from Marta's bag to make sure she couldn't save him, as part of a scheme to cut Marta out of the will (the "slayer rule" states that a person cannot inherit property from a person he or she murdered, even by accident) after Harlan left his entire estate to her instead of to his family. What's more, Marta was a good enough nurse that she was able to tell the medicines apart at a glance without looking at the labels, and only freaked out when she took a closer look at the bottles. She had given Harlan the right medicine all along, and [[SenselessSacrifice he killed himself for no reason]].]]
71* ''Film/LesDiaboliques''. Alfred Fichet is investigating (on his own time) Michel's disappearance, who was killed by his wife and mistress. Alfred Fichet is the inspiration for ''Series/{{Columbo}}'', too.
72* ''Film/{{Memento}}'' plays the hell out of this trope. We see who [[spoiler: (supposedly)]] was the murderer and so does Lenny in the very first scene. However, the film goes in ''reverse'', and ''then'' with him only remembering scenes in several minute intervals, as we see the outcome and learn the clues as he does while already being "spoiled" to the ending, because of it going in reverse. For the first half, the viewer is able to string together the various short bits of color and he is not, involving quite a bit of mental work, but we still know more than he does because we can remember it. [[spoiler: However, at the halfway point, all hell breaks loose and the people we and Lenny learn to trust and not trust every few minutes may not be as they seem, especially Lenny himself.]]
73* ''Film/{{Oldboy 2003}}'' has the villain reveal himself to both the viewer ''and'' the protagonist partway through the film, and challenges the protagonist to figure out his motive for imprisoning him.
74* ''Film/TenToMidnight'': The audience knows right away who the killer is, and the detectives figure this out soon too, with the plot being how they will bring him down.
75[[/folder]]
76
77[[folder:Literature]]
78!!By Creator:
79* By Creator/IsaacAsimov:
80** The short story "The Singing Bell" opens with the murder, and then introduces the detective and proceeds to the investigation.
81** "The Dust of Death", set in the same continuity, follows a similar pattern.
82%%* Used to great effect by Creator/MaryHigginsClark in numerous mystery novels.
83* Mystery author Creator/MichaelConnelly has indulged in this twice.
84** In ''Literature/TheScarecrow'' it is established very early that Carver and Stone are the murderers of Denise Babbit; the suspense lies in how IntrepidReporter Jack [=McEvoy=] will track them down.
85** In ''Literature/TheCrossing2015'', it's obvious from the get-go that dirty cops Ellis and Long are the murderers. The mystery lies in why they killed Lexi Parks and framed another man, and how protagonist Harry Bosch will figure it out.
86* By Creator/FreemanWillsCrofts:
87** Done with a twist in ''Mystery on Southampton Water'' — we are shown the original murder, the killer's attempt to cover it up, and Inspector French's investigation. Then there's a second murder where the viewpoint character from the first (and therefore the reader) doesn't get to see who did it or how.
88** ''12:30 From Croydon'' is a straight example: the main protagonist is the murderer, whom we follow from the moment he contemplates committing murder, all the way to his trial and conviction. We only see what he sees of Inspector French's investigation, which is hardly anything. Then in the final two chapters, French retells events from his perspective and we see all the clues the murderer never even knew he was leaving.
89** In ''Antidote To Venom'' the viewpoint character is the murderer's accomplice rather than the actual murderer, so although he's morally and legally just as culpable, even he doesn't know exactly how the crime was done.
90* Almost everything written by Creator/JeffreyDeaver is this--the novels often containing passages told from the point of view of the villain early in the novel, and spend the rest of the story charting the battle of wits between the good guys and the bad.
91
92!!By Title:
93* An early example is the story ''Ali Khwajah and the Merchant of Baghdad'' in [[Literature/ArabianNights One Thousand and One Nights]]. It's perhaps noteworthy that the criminal in this story is in no way exceptionally intelligent - he just picks a very unsuspecting victim. Still, solving the crime is so easy a child could do it...
94* ''Literature/AnnoDracula'': The heroes are out to catch UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper; the first chapter reveals that he is Dr. John Seward.
95* Occurs in the first two ''Literature/BekaCooper'' books alongside regular whodunnits. In ''Terrier'', it's obvious early on that Crookshank is the one behind the fire opal disappearances, but they have a hard time finding proof. Everyone in ''Bloodhound'' also knows that Pearl Skinner is behind the counterfeits, too, but in addition to evidence, they also have a Lord Provost who's ''terrified'' of her.
96* ''Captain Leopold Incognito'' had the variation that the villain (and reader) knew Leopold would be making an undercover investigation but did not what identity he would be using.
97* Examples from literature, later adapted into films: ''Literature/TheDayOfTheJackal'' by Frederick Forsyth and ''Literature/AKissBeforeDying'' by Ira Levin.
98** Although in ''Literature/TheDayOfTheJackal'' the investigators locate the assassin by pursuing a line of investigation based on [[spoiler:a false assumption regarding his true identity]].
99* ''Literature/TheDemolishedMan'' by Creator/AlfredBester spends its first five chapters showing a man commit an incredibly complex murder, then the rest of the book follows the officer who suspects he did it and is trying to prove it. Subverted a bit because [[spoiler:even the killer isn't completely aware of his own motivation for the crime, which proves to be a pretty big obstacle for the officer to overcome.]]
100* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': The subtitle of ''Literature/FeetOfClay'' is "A Discworld Howdunnit", though the actual story is a classic whodunit.
101** Although figuring out how [[spoiler:arsenic is being administered to Vetinari]] is crucial to solving the who.
102** Unless you're just really good at [[spoiler:trilingual puns. It's a shame Vimes isn't]].
103** [[WordOfGod Word of Pterry]] describes both ''Literature/GuardsGuards'' and ''Literature/MenAtArms'' in similar terms, although they're more along the lines of thrillers that happen to star policemen. Both villains ''think'' they're in an open mystery, and that they're the main villain of the piece. [[spoiler:They're not. [[EvilIsNotAToy Their murder weapons are]].]]
104** ''Literature/TheTruth'' is similar, except with reporters as the protagonists.
105* ''Literature/DreamPark'': In ''The California Voodoo Game'', almost at the start, we see the villain kill someone to help cover up a theft, but we're not told what the theft is. So not only do we read to see how the heroes figure him out and catch him, but to discover what was stolen. Has two brilliant [[ThePlan plans]] colliding one from each side.
106* ''Literature/DrThorndyke'' was one of the first to do this; several of his stories will show the killer performing an apparently perfect coverup in the first half, then following it with scientific deduction through the second half. (The first four such stories were collected together and published as ''Literature/TheSingingBone'' in 1912.) R. Austin Freeman stated that such stories were an experiment in whether it was possible to eliminate what he felt were implausibly melodramatic numbers of possible suspects in detective stories by making it clear from the start who did it and how, but the tension instead coming from whether the reader has spotted ''how'' a detective could find out by studying what evidence the criminal left.
107** There are also variations such as ''The Shadow of the Wolf'', in which the narrative cuts between the murderer (a skilled engraver and forger) creating a false trail to try to show his victim has absconded but is still alive, and Thorndyke using [[RevealingCoverup the faked evidence itself]] to trace it back to the murderer.
108* In the prologue for the book that proceeds the [[spoiler:LukeIAmYourFather]] twist in ''Literature/TheLandOfStories'', we are shown [[spoiler:the Fairy Godmother had two children-the twins father, who acts exactly like one would expect based on previous descriptions of him, and Lloyd, a withdrawn, power hungry young boy. [[StrongFamilyResemblance They also look exactly like one another]]. Yeah, guess which brother was actually behind the Masked Man?]] A good portion of the book hinges on when the twins will figure this out.
109* These were followed by ''Malice Aforethought'' (1931) by Anthony Berkeley Cox, and most of the Department of Dead Ends stories by Roy Vickers.
110* Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/MrMercedes'' is about a retired cop tracking down a mass murderer. The reader knows early on who Mr. Mercedes is.
111* ''Literature/RedDragon'' and its sequel, ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs''. In both of them, we know fairly early on who the killer is, and learn more details as the FBI protagonists figure out the mystery.
112* ''Literature/TheSecretHistory'' begins with a prologue which tells you who dies and who kills him. Then the first chapter skips back a year previous, and we spend the first half of the book coming to understand why this happened. The author said of it:
113-->'''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oo-wNuP9tU Donna Tartt 1992 interview]]:''' One of the reasons why I wanted to do that was partly because I'd been studying Greek. There's tremendous suspense in ''Literature/TheIliad'' and you know everything that's going to happen -- they tell you everything that's going to happen in the first six lines. This was just a very interesting question to me: How do you create suspense from knowing what we already know? I love Creator/AlfredHitchcock and I read something that Alfred Hitchcock said: Suspense doesn't come from having a bomb thrown from nowhere at the hero. Suspense comes from having two people sitting, talking at a table. There's a bomb ticking underneath the table. The audience sees it but the characters don't. And that's what suspense is. In a funny way, that was what made me want to write this ''sort'' of novel.
114* The ''Literature/JamesBond'' novels ''Literature/{{Thunderball}}'' and (to a lesser degree) ''Literature/FromRussiaWithLove'' feature villains putting a dastardly plot in motion, and Bond unravelling it.
115* ''Literature/TwoLittleGirlsInBlue'' is a partial example; the reader knows who the kidnappers of the titular little girls are, with the protagonists trying to figure this out and hunt them down. However, the identity of mastermind behind the kidnapping is hidden for most of the novel.
116[[/folder]]
117
118[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
119* ''Series/{{Andor}}'': For the first story arc Karn is trying to figure out and capture/kill whoever murdered the two corrupt corpos Cassian killed in the first nine minutes of the show. He does figure out that Cassian is the killer, but the attempt to capture him [[GoneHorriblyWrong goes horribly wrong]]; the consequences are explored throughout the rest of the season, along with Karn's growing obsession with continuing to pursue him.
120* This is the whole premise of ''Series/BreakingBad'': Walt is a meth cook starting in the first episode, and the DEA spends much of the series looking for New Mexico's elusive new drug dealers. There's a concurrent plot of Walt's brother-in-law Hank, who works in the DEA, attempting to catch this mysterious new meth kingpin, unaware his target is a close family member.
121* ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' is a [[TropeCodifier pioneer]] for the "howcatchum" style, and the creators invented the term. Rather than puzzle out the perpetrator from a variety of suspects, Columbo always focuses his investigations on the actual perpetrator and uses his unassuming style to amass enough evidence for an arrest.
122* Many episodes of ''Series/CriminalMinds''.
123** Most of the time, the show plays with this trope. We usually see the crime as it happens, but we don't always know the killer's identity or motivations. In some particular episodes, we don't even know ''what's really going on'' because it's shown from the killer's point of view, meaning that if he thinks the puppet is a person, his mother is still alive, or the gangsters he's fighting are demons, [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness we see that too]], until everything's explained. In the episode "What Happens in Mecklinberg," the killer is always wearing a pig mask until the BAU figures out that the killer is [[spoiler: a woman]], at which point, the killer [[IdentityConcealmentDisposal never puts the mask on again]].
124* Most episodes of ''Series/CriminologistHimuraAndMysteryWriterArisugawa'' operate on FairPlayWhodunnit, but "Smashing a Show Window" instead shows things from the criminal's point of view. He starts to hallucinate his victim following him around, and has to put up with Himura constantly pointing out the flaws in what he considered to be a perfect crime.
125* The ''Series/{{CSI}}'' episode "Killer" alternates its point of view between the killer and the [=CSIs=], showing his motivations and attempts to cover up his crime as the investigators get closer.
126* The second season of ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' is about searching for the [[SerialKillerKiller Bay-harbor butcher]], who happens to be Dexter Morgan. However, it's less about "How do they catch him" then "How does he fool them".
127%%** Also shows up in the third and fourth seasons of ''Series/{{Dexter}}''.
128* ''Series/DexterNewBlood'': The audience knows very early on that [[spoiler:Kurt Caldwell]] is the "Runaway Killer", and the question then becomes just how he'll be stopped-through legal means or VigilanteExecution by Dexter.
129* ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' does this a great deal.
130** One fun episode has a killer bride and groom detailing their "perfect" murder and the audience shown how it plans out. Then the actual crime has ''nothing'' going to plan. Still, the killer gets it done only to be ironically be discovered, not for his many mistakes but because the "evidence" against the person framed for the crime was ''[[OrgyOfEvidence too]]'' convincing for Dr. Sloan. As he notes, it's hard to believe a smart killer can leave so much behind to implicate him and thus fights to get at the truth.
131* Variation in ''Series/{{Frasier}}''. One episode starts with an entirely innocent explanation for why a cracked skull would end up under the floorboards of Frasier and Niles' old house, the remainder of the episode consists of the two of them discovering it and totally misinterpreting the evidence.
132* ''Furuhata Ninzaburou'' is Columbo in all but name; just before the last act, the titular detective "pauses" the action to address the audience to give them hints as to why he believes that the chief suspect did it, and what evidence there is to force a confession.
133* Since ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'' is a prequel to the Hannibal Lecter film and book series (barring ''Literature/HannibalRising'', which takes place even earlier, but doesn't seem to be canon to the show), the entire series is based around the build-up to Hannibal's eventual capture by Will. They also show us some of the other killers in advance.
134* ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' used this format occasionally in its first couple of seasons, showing the whole crime at the beginning and (usually) setting Goren and Eames on the culprit and harrying them into showing their hand. In later seasons, it's more common that they show the circumstances around the murder but leave the killer's identity ambiguous, although there's still a handful of straight examples as late as Season 8, including the SeasonFinale.
135** In any other ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' series, however, if at first the cold open looks to be setting up a ReverseWhodunnit, with a crime appearing imminent, you can expect that they'll subvert it once the near-victim trips over someone else's dead body, which will be the actual focus of the episode's investigation.
136* Episode six of ''Literature/LessonsForAPerfectDetectiveStory'' is played this way. When interviewing murder suspects, the cast decides instantly who he was and the murderer, though never out-right confessing, doesn't deny that he was the murderer. The rest of the episode is Tenkaichi trying to figure out his trick: [[spoiler: he never manages to]].
137* Every episode of ''Series/{{Luther}}'' reveals the villain early on, with the drama coming from how Luther will catch the suspect.
138* Some episodes of ''Matlock'' were like this.
139* ''Series/{{Monk}}'' tended to do this with many of its episodes.
140** Although Monk's recaps still filled in a lot of gaps and would give the audience the context and usually more details of the murder itself.
141** This is also played with in some cases. The exact nature of the mysteries varies to the point where what exactly ''is'' the mystery differs between each episode. Sometimes it's "who did it", and sometimes it's "how do they catch them", but sometimes the mystery ends up being "how did they do it?" or "why did they do it?". In most cases it tends to be a combination of two or more of these, but exactly which question is the primary focus differs every time.
142** Monk figures out the who before the how so often that one of his recurring catchphrases is "I don't know how he did it, but he did it."
143* The entire premise of ''Series/{{Motive}}'' is that the viewer is told who the killer is within the first few minutes but you have to figure out... well, the motive. It's not a whodunit, it's a "whydunit". The detectives don't know who the killer is or their motive, but the answer to both is revealed in the ensuing investigation.
144* ''Series/MrsColumbo'' follows a similar to ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' format.
145* The ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' episode "Defiance" starts with a political extremist sending a suicide bomber to stop a foreign diplomat from signing a treaty with the United States. (He fails.) The extremist in question is then shown to be a college professor for the diplomat's daughter; therefore, when she's kidnapped, it's no surprise when Team Gibbs finds out that he's responsible. It ends up {{Subverted}}, however, when the guy is found dead, revealing that there's another player involved with his own motives.
146* The ''Series/NCISNewOrleans'' episode "Mind Games" starts by showing a serial killer finishing off her latest victim. When Team Pride discovers said victim, Gregorio calls an FBI profiler she studied under -- who is revealed to be the serial killer. Once she realizes that Gregorio is on the case, she decides to go after her, and Team Pride has to race against time to save Gregorio.
147* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': The episode "Jewel Robbery" see a criminal break into a jewelry store and flee when the alarm sounds. Miss Brooks, standing around the corner, sees Mr. Boynton look into the broken window. The episode then follows Miss Brooks as she suspects Mr. Boynton, and then catches the actual villain.
148* The ''Franchise/PerryMason'' episode "The Case of the Lucky Loser" used this: at the very beginning, we see a man follow his cheating wife, then shoot her lover. The man's nephew is accused of the crime, and the family hires Perry to clear the nephew without implicating the uncle. [[spoiler:Subverted when it turns out the shooting we saw wasn't really the murder. The supposed victim of the shooting was already dead, the real victim of the shooting was the murderer, and the shooter was the murder victim. It was complicated.]]
149* ''Series/PokerFace'': Each episode usually begins with the murder and the plot from there usually involves Charlie piecing together the crime while she is on the run.
150* The ''Series/PoliceSquad!'' series by Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker.
151* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
152** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E9TheVengeanceFactor The Vengeance Factor]]", the audience knows [[spoiler:Yuta]] is the killer from the start, but is still privy to the crew's attempts at solving the murder.
153** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E24TheMindsEye The Mind's Eye]]", it's obvious early on that [[ManchurianAgent the Romulans are manipulating Geordi]] to do something against the Klingons, and before the final commercial break we learn the endgame of the plot as well as who their [[TheMole inside]] [[TheQuisling man]] is. The question is whether our heroes figure it out in time.
154** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E14Conundrum Conundrum]]", the audience knows that [[RememberTheNewGuy MacDuff]] isn't part of the crew, and this war with the Lysians is a fabrication. We just don't know what's really going on or how he figures into it.
155** "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E25TheInnerLight The Inner Light]]" makes it plain that Picard is in a mental fantasy, but we see how the other crewmembers are tackling his condition. We also find out ''why'' Picard is in the fantasy.
156* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': The Cardassian [[KangarooCourt legal system]] is said to work like this. The defendant is judged to be guilty before the trial commences, and the prosecutor's job is to demonstrate how their guilt was proven, so as to demonstrate to other Cardassians how no one escapes justice.
157* ''Series/WhiteCollar'' has shades of this. The protagonists usually figure out who the bad guy is pretty quickly, and the rest of the episode is spent on how they catch him.
158* ''Series/TheWire''. The audience knows the answer to most of the murder mysteries, and instead get to follow how the police solve them over the course of the season, or fail to. Season one has the murder of Avon's ex-girlfriend that D'angelo [[UnreliableNarator claims]] he did. Season two's dead women in the can is resolved by The Greeks within a couple of episodes. And in season four, we see Chris and Snoop kill one of Marlo's enemies in an abandoned house, and closing the exit with the nail gun Snoop buys in the cold open of the season premiere.
159[[/folder]]
160
161[[folder:Religion and Mythology]]
162* Literature/{{The Bible}}:
163** The deuterocanonical (or apocryphal, according to Protestants) extended ''Literature/BookOfDaniel'' has a story of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanna_(Book_of_Daniel) Susanna]], a woman falsely accused of adultery. Daniel proves that Susanna is innocent using detective methods; he separates the two supposed witnesses and then asks them what tree they saw the affair take place under. Both give different answers, proving that they were lying.
164** In the extended ''Literature/BookOfDaniel'', we have a story of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bel_and_the_Dragon Bel and the Dragon]]. In that story, Daniel exposes the lies of Bel’s priests, in one of the oldest cases of a LockedRoomMystery on the record. In this case, Daniel is challenged to prove how the meat of animals sacrificed to Bel kept disappearing despite the temple being locked. He spreads flour on the floor of the temple, proving that the priests entered at night through a secret passage to take the meat.
165[[/folder]]
166
167[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
168* How to run investigation adventures with mediums or other character with psychic powers: Sure, we know who did it since our resident psychic/medium/necromancer asked the dead guy who killed him/had a psychic flash and saw the crime happen just as if it had happened in front of his very eyes/is a LivingLieDetector and saw right through the lies of the culprit, but WeNeedToGetProof if we want to avoid an innocent character to whom we have a connection becoming victim of a MiscarriageOfJustice.
169[[/folder]]
170
171[[folder:Theatre]]
172* A advertisement for ''A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder'' states that the musical is "not a whodunnit, rather how-does-he-do-it eight times".
173* ''Theatre/OedipusRex'' is the UrExample. The audience knows Oedipus killed his own father, but we wait for him to figure it out.
174* The theme of the second act of ''Theatre/{{Sleuth}}'', as the inspector arrives to unravel the events shown in the first act. [[spoiler:Subverted as no actual murder happened. In fact, the inspector is actually the supposed victim in disguise, putting his own plan in motion to get even.]]
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176
177[[folder:Video Games]]
178* ''VideoGame/ThreeOutOfTen'': In Season 2's first episode, ''The Kevin Effect'', the silhouette of the computer thief is very clearly shown, with no attempt to disguise their identity.
179* ''VideoGame/DarkRomance: Ashville'' centers around two investigations taking place at different points in the timeline. Louise's efforts and notes help Robert acquire concrete proof of [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Bradley's]] unethical business practices so that he can get the police to take action against him.
180* ''VideoGame/Overboard2021'' casts the player in the role of [[VillainProtagonist Veronica Villensey]], who is trying to get away with murdering [[AssholeVictim her husband]] on the S.S. Hook.
181* In ''VideoGame/TheSexyBrutale'', it's not a question of who's committing the murders or how they were killed -- rather, the goal is figuring out how to ''prevent'' the murders from playing out in the first place.
182* ''VideoGame/{{Yesterday}}'' tells you just who the bad guys are right in the prologue. The twist lies more in their motivations.
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184
185[[folder:Visual Novels]]
186* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'':
187** The first case of most games in the series is one of these, with the murderer being shown for the player's benefit in the opening cutscene and then serving as the all-too-obvious WarmUpBoss. The most notable aversions are the third and fourth games' first cases, which are more standard whodunnits. This is likely partially because Phoenix himself is the defendant in both cases (and they're obviously not going to be throwing the main character in prison), [[spoiler:partly because the the real murderers are played much more seriously and continue on to be the respective BigBad of their games even after the initial defeat]]. The fourth game's first case even serves as its WhamEpisode.
188** The page image is the very first case in the series, where the player is shown Frank Sahwit panicking after killing Cindy Stone and deciding to avert suspicion from himself by claiming Larry Butz did the deed.
189** On occasion (usually when the true culprit is just that ObviouslyEvil), this also happens with the second cases, such as the first game and ''Dual Destinies''. And even the third case in ''Trials and Tribulations'' shows you the killer's silhouette at the start.
190** The second case of ''Justice for All'' zig-zags this. The cutscene in the beginning shows the real killer talking about their crime, but not only is the person in silhouette, they also spend the entire trial disguised as someone else, so finding out who's been the intro character all along is still a challenge.
191** Sometimes true nature of the guilty party is obvious when you see them for the first time, but other times they pull a U-Turn and make it someone you aren't expecting. ...Then other times, they'll know that players are expecting a U-Turn so won't give you one, instead making the real culprit the person all the evidence has been pointing to. All in all, the series does all three examples so sporadically that you usually can't tell if you should be looking out for the too obvious culprit, the so-completely-innocent-looking culprit, or the in-your-face culprit.
192* The first murder in ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' is an unintentional example, as the victim literally [[CouldntFindAPen writes the killer's name in their own blood]], but upside-down, backwards, and in English, so the Japanese-speaking cast think that it's a number (as a Japanese audience would most likely assume as well.) Western players, however, would see the clue for what it is right away, and thus the mystery for them is more about ''how'' the killer got into Makoto's bedroom to kill the victim (when the victim had previously stated they ''wouldn't'' open the door that night because they were afraid of being targeted), which is important to figuring out the case anyway and [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools is a far more compelling mystery]].
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