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Author: captainbrass2

Jul 12th 2011 at 12:12:04 PM

If we haven't already got this, you may be on to a winner here, because it comes up a lot in late 19th/early 20th century detective fiction. Some examples:-
* In another Father Brown story, ''The Ghost of Gideon Wise'', a Communist confesses to murdering a millionaire, but it turns out that the millionaire isn't dead and the "Communist" is actually working for him - the "murder" was set up so they could alibi each other for the murder of two other businessmen who had refused to join the miilionaire's cartel.
* In the Sherlock Holmes story ''The Adventure of The Six Napoleons'', one of the characters suggests that it must have been anarchists who smashed the bust of Napoleon in his shop. It turns out to be nothing of the sort.
* In Dorothy L. Sayers' ''Have His Carcass'', the murder victim is a gigolo who believes he is related to the Romanov family. His current sugar-mummy blames the dastardly Bolsheviks for his death, but it's nothing to do with them, although indirectly the alleged royal connection turns out to be a clue.