This Index Is a Clue

Related Indexes:

An index for ways in which characters can deduce a clue from their environment:

Verbal clues

Conviction by Contradiction: Someone is revealed as guilty due to their story having an inconsistency.
I Never Said It Was Poison: Rendering oneself guilty by having knowledge that they shouldn't have.
I Never Told You My Name: Rendering oneself guilty by knowing someone's name which they shouldn't.
Loose Lips: Unintentionally spilling information.
Notable Non Sequitur: A seemingly nonsensical line that turns out to be a clue.
Suspiciously Specific Denial: Denying something in a way that makes them look guilty.
You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: They called you that just now? Something's wrong.

Affair Letters: Love letters reveal an affair.
Condensation Clue: A hidden message written in condensation with a finger.
Convenient Photograph: A photograph captures a piece of crucial information.
Couldn't Find a Pen: Writing down a clue with something else than a pen, most likely blood.
Dying Clue: A cryptically written message by a dying character.
Enhance Button: A clue derived from impossible image enhancement.
Invisible Writing: Writings that aren't visible to the naked eye.
Rewind, Replay, Repeat: Replaying video to get a better look at a clue in it.
Secret Society Group Picture: A picture of the past connects characters.
Writing Indentation Clue: Rubbing a pencil on a "blank" notebook paper to reveal secret words.

Cover Identity Anomaly: An imposter doesn't know a basic piece of information about their cover identity.
Imposter Forgot One Detail: A Doppelgänger makes a slip that gives them away.
The Killer Was Left-Handed: Left-handedness as a clue.
Not Himself: Getting suspicious of a character not acting like their normal self.
Out-of-Character Alert: An out-of-character action or statement reveals an imposter.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: An out-of-character action or statement alerts of some danger.
Something Only They Would Say: A phrase that reveals a character's true identity.
Spotting the Thread: A deception is broken by one subtle flaw.
Suspiciously Prescient Planning: Excessively and specifically preparing for an event indicates foreknowledge of it happening.
The Tell: A character's body language and/or behavior indicates how they're truly feeling.

Affair Hair: A hair renders someone guilty of an affair.
Anachronistic Clue: An item becomes a clue by being from the wrong time period.
Bookmark Clue: A clue is revealed because someone used it for a bookmark.
Calling Card: A criminal's signature clue.
Clock Discrepancy: The clock was wrong.
The Girl Who Fits This Slipper: Clothing being character-specific as a clue.
Going by the Matchbook: A branded item, such as a matchbook, provides a clue.
Framed Clue: A clue hides behind a picture frame.
Identification by Dental Records: Dental records reveal the identity of a victim.
Lipstick Mark: A lipstick mark convicts someone of an affair.
Orgy of Evidence: The sheer amount of clues reveals that they're fake.
Revealing Injury: A revealed injury serves as a clue.
Signature Item Clue: A personal item found provides a vital clue.
Signed with a Kiss: A lipstick mark gives away the identity of a letter's author.
Stopped Clock: The clock stopped when something happened.

Absence of Evidence: The absence of something is a clue in and of itself.
Clue, Evidence, and a Smoking Gun: A very evident evidence renders moot the deductive, minute, and preceding ones.
Clue of Few Words: A plotpoint, mystery, or puzzle involves interpreting the meaning of only one to three words.
Criminal Mind Games: A criminal intentionally leaves behind clues.
Fingertip Drug Analysis: Tasting a substance to check if it is drugs.
Five-Second Foreshadowing: Foreshadowing an event just moments before it happens.
Foreign Money Is Proof of Guilt: Foreign money being a clue because it's foreign.
Forensic Accounting: Cracking secrets by tracing their finances and paperwork.
The Ketchup Test: Tasting a substance to check if it is blood.
Quiet Cry for Help: A character asking help from others by some indirect hints.
Police Psychic: Psychic powers being used to get a clue.
Regularly Scheduled Evil: The regularity of the crime is a clue.
Revealing Continuity Lapse: An in-universe continuity error, meant to signify something about the story, setting or characters.
Revealing Cover-Up: Hiding something in such a way that just draws attention to it.
Sherlock Scan: Noticing a few simple clues with a subsequent impressive logical conclusion.
Sniff Sniff Nom: Using your sense of taste to identify substances.
Suspiciously Clean Criminal Record: A clean criminal record raises suspicion.

Clock Tampering: Someone messed with this clock.
Corpse Temperature Tampering: Interfering with the natural cooling of a dead body to obfuscate the time of death.
Cut-and-Paste Note: Making a note out of existing text to avoid leaving handwriting clues.
Destroy the Evidence: Destroying or hiding evidence for another character's crimes.
Eat the Evidence: Disposing of clues by eating them.
Faking and Entering: Staging a break-in to cover up something else.
Fiery Cover-Up: Burning the evidence for your crime.
Hide the Evidence: Hiding clues to prevent them from being found.
Inconveniently Vanishing Exonerating Evidence: Important evidence disappears.
It Was Here, I Swear!: While witnesses are being retrieved, the evidence disappears.
Obfuscating Postmortem Wounds: Additional wounds are inflicted on a corpse to mask the true cause of death.

The Corpse Stops Here: A person seen hunching over the victim's body is never the culprit.
Conveniently Interrupted Document: A document is missing the part that could give away a clue.
False Confession: Confessing to crimes that you didn't do to confuse the investigation.
Mistaken for Evidence: What you thought was a clue, wasn't.
Possession Presumes Guilt: An innocent person holds an item that makes them look guilty.
Red Herring: Something which seems like a clue but isn't.
Useless Security Camera: No clues from the cameras.