History KarmicDeath / Literature

* Creator/MichaelCrichton's ''Literature/JurassicPark'' has Hammond [[NeverMyFault blaming everyone else]] (except Nedry) for the mess he's created, pausing to admire how pretty the Compsognathi slowly surrounding him are, and then admiring the respect they show him as he slowly dies of their poisoned bite.

* ''Literature/DoctorSleep'': The [[Characters/TheShining True Knot]] are sadistic psychic vampires who maintain their quasi-immortality by routinely kidnapping children and excruciatingly torturing them to death to consume the Steam that their dying agony lets off -- it's only appropriate that when the True Knot are dying from whatever cause that they're forced to feel their bodies and flesh cycling in and out of existence, causing them tospend their dying moments writhing in agony much like all their child victims did, before they're allowed to expire.

** ''Literature/StormFront'': Victor Sells had tried to kill Harry first by siccing a demon on him, and then sending gargantuan scorpion constructs after him. How does he die? Victor Sells uses the demon's True Name in Harry's earshot, so Harry uses that to free the demon from his control. The demon attacks Sells and knocks him into a pit of his scorpions, where he is devoured.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': In ''Literature/BrothersOfTheSnake'', the Dark Eldar kabal who tried to bring Ork invasion into the Reef Stars is killed by an eldar when the same Orks are lured to their planet. For bonus points, the Imperium uses the same method the kabal utilized earlier to manipulate the greenskins.

* The titular character of Creator/HPLovecraft's short story ''Literature/HerbertWestReanimator'' is in the end killed when a horde of the more or less insane (mostly the former) victims of his experiments swoops into his laboratory and brutally rip him apart.

* ''[[Creator/TimDorsey Serge A. Storms]]'': While many of Serge's death traps and other murder methods are rather random, sometimes, the punishment has some relation to the {{Asshole Victim}}s offense, although [=YMMV=] on whether some are karmic or disproportionate.

* A regular occurrence in Creator/TimDorsey's ''Florida Roadkill'' novels. The most notable example being an insurance claims worker whose job it is to deny medical coverage, ''especially'' if said coverage is an official part of the claimant's policy. He gets shot and taken to the emergency room. The calls to his insurance company (the one he works at) get routed to his desk, which, since he is at the hospital instead of at work, he can't answer. So he is denied coverage, the bullet remains in his body, and he dies of lead poisoning.

* In the ''ComicBook/SpiderMan Literature/SinisterSixTrilogy'', The Gentleman, who always put wealth above anything else, is killed by The Chameleon and has all of his fortune stolen from him. To rub salt in the wound, a detective whose life The Gentleman ruined confronts him as he lays dying. He thinks he has the final laugh until the detective points out he'll die a pauper. The detective then lays a penny on the opposite end of the room and leaves knowing The Gentleman will crawl for it.

* In ''Literature/BluesKiesInCamelot'', Charles Manson is already a monster who orchestrated the murders of Pierre Trudeau and Barbara Streisand, but when he hands Mary a gun and tells her to kill her baby with the words "Kill the monster, Mary. Set us free", she turns the gun on Charles, emptying it into him.

** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Voldemort, through a lengthily-explained property of the eponymous AppliedPhlebotinum, finds the definitively un-blockable Killing Curse blocked and turned against himself. ''Again''. [[{{Irony}} And thus, the man who sought above all else to be powerful, notorious, and feared dies with a thud]].
** Vincent Crabbe uses a powerful fire-spreading curse on the heroes that he himself can't control. He's the only one who gets killed by it.

* ''Literature/TheDaevabadTrilogy'': By the finale, the BigBad has [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope Jumped Off the Slippery Slope]], established a RainOfTerror, massacred swaths of the city, and enslaved her [[TheDragon Dragon]]'s soul to make him IncapableOfDisobeying. The Dragon tricks her into [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor wishing for him to "save the city"]] and stabs her to death.

* ''Literature/TheDaevabadTrilogy'': By the finale, the BigBad has [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope Jumped Off the Slippery Slope]], massacred swathes of the city, and enslaved her [[TheDragon Dragon]]'s soul to make him IncapableOfDisobeying. The Dragon tricks her into [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor wishing for him to "save the city"]] and promptly stabs her to death.

** ''A Storm of Swords'': Lysa Arryn had a lot of people who she didn't like executed by throwing them off a mountain. Later, after she nearly kills Sansa by the same method, Littlefinger tells her that [[KickTheSonOfABitch the only woman he ever loved was her sister]] and shoves her off the mountain himself.

* Near the end of Creator/GeorgeEliot's ''Literature/DanielDeronda'', the appalling Mr. Grandcourt finally meets his end when he falls off a boat and, unable to swim, asks his wife to throw him a rope. She hesitates just a moment too long...
* The villains in the ''Literature/DirkPittAdventures'' (the National Underwater and Marine Agency) of books written by Creator/CliveCussler tend to die this way.

* ''Literature/TheFortressOfTheBlackCauldron'': [[KidHero Billy]] and [[VampiresAreSexGods Asmodia]]'s duel quickly degenerates into a messy, dirty fight; in the end, Billy [[ManBitesMan uses his teeth]] to [[ImpromptuTracheotomy rip out his opponent's carrotid artery]].

* Creator/MichaelCrichton's ''Literature/JurassicPark'' (not to be confused with TheFilmOfTheBook) has Hammond [[NeverMyFault blaming everyone else]] (except Nedry) for the mess he's created, pausing to admire how pretty the Compsognathi slowly surrounding him are, and then admiring the respect they show him as he slowly dies of their poisoned bite. It's really quite a moving scene for a Karmic Death.

** Mollyl from "Cold Light", who liked to [[{{Sadist}} cause pain]] to his helpless victims and was the first to carry out [[KnightTemplar Gaethaa's]] commands to torture and kill, dies in the most painful way of all men hunting [[VillainProtagonist Kane]]: he is burnt alive.

** All the characters who bullied ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'' get killed by her power, which they activated by making her so enraged. Special mention goes to Chris Hargensen and Billy Nolan (who are killed when Carrie takes control of the vehicle Chris tries to use to run her down), as well as Margaret White (in the movie, Carrie actually crucifies her fanatically religious mother).

* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'':
** Saruman is [[HoistByHisOwnPetard killed by much-abused servant Wormtongue]], and Gollum falls into the volcano by dancing too exuberantly. In TheFilmOfTheBook, the former was entirely cut from the film and only viewable on the extended DVD.
** Used straight by the film adaptation. Gollum goes over the edge while struggling with Frodo for the Ring rather than simply a misstep.
** The Witch-King stabbed Frodo with a Morgul blade, and the same is done to him by Merry, allowing him to be killed by Éowyn.

* In the ''Franchise/SpiderMan Literature/SinisterSixTrilogy'', The Gentleman, who always put wealth above anything else, is killed by The Chameleon and has all of his fortune stolen from him. To rub salt in the wound, a detective whose life The Gentleman ruined confronts him as he lays dying. He thinks he has the final laugh until the detective points out he'll die a pauper. The detective then lays a penny on the opposite end of the room and leaves knowing The Gentleman will crawl for it.

* ''Literature/Afterglow2015'': Jimmy Grant, a Utah-based televangelist who is earlier shown to despise Anomalies, is killed by Joshua Tucker and Brooke Del Vento in front of his congregation on live TV.]

* ''Literature/{{Kane}}'':