History Literature / TheMacbethMurderMystery

* EveryoneIsASuspect: The story ends with the narrator announcing that he's going to tackle ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' next. "But who do you suspect?" "Everybody."
* FunnyForeigner: There are two examples: A ShoutOut to [[Literature/HerculePoirot Hercule Poirot]], a fictional detective who invokes this trope [[ObfuscatingStupidity to hide his cunning]] as a detective, and played straight with the Reader (the narrator places his tale in an '' "hotel in the English lake country" '' and calls the Reader an American Lady nine times), a silly woman who insists on applying DetectiveDrama tropes to ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' making a fool of herself and... What do you mean that DumbassHasAPoint??

** Literature/{{Ivanhoe}}: The Reader mentions this novel as one of the books on the genre of ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', HistoricalFiction. The point is that Ivanhoe is full of AnachronismStew that one might call it a sort of HollywoodHistory, and just like Macbeth, uses generously ArtisticLicenseHistory. Also, Ivanhoe has his protagonist fooling people who had knew him all his life with a simple PaperThinDisguise, rendering him like a MasterOfDisguise (or those people like MedievalMorons). Those tropes would be important in the solution the Narrator settles on later.
** Literature/LornaDoone: The Narrator mentions this novel as one of the books on the genre of [[Theatre/Macbeth Macbeth]], HistoricalFiction that are thaught at english HighSchool, like Literature/Ivanhoe. John Ridds, an English freeholder in UsefulNotes/TheWestCountry who falls in love with [[TitleDrop Lorna Doone]], a woman from [[YouKilledMyFather the family who killed his father]], torning John between love and desire for revenge. The novel is a GenreBusting of HistoricalFiction with MysteryFiction, because the Doones [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections have connections with (and influence over) the local aristocracy]], [[CorruptCop judiciary and government officials]], forcing John to become an AmateurSleuth to seek justice. Also many people who interact with John take him to be a very simple and dull fellow, interested only in wrestling and farming, but John denies he is using ObfuscatingStupidity. Those tropes would be important in the solution the Natarrator settles on later.

->'' [[INeedAFreakingDrink "I'll have another brandy,”]] and I called the waiter. When he brought it, I drank it rapidly and rose to go. "I believe," I said, [[DumbassHasAPoing "that you have got hold of something]]. Would you lend me that 'Macbeth'? I'd like to look it over tonight. I don't feel, somehow as if I’d ever really read it." ''

----

** [[Literature/Ivanhoe]]: The Reader mentions this novel as one of the books on the genre of ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', HistoricalFiction. The point is that Ivanhoe is full of AnachronismStew that one might call it a sort of HollywoodHistory, and just like Macbeth, uses generously ArtisticLicenseHistory. Also, Ivanhoe has his protagonist fooling people who had knew him all his life with a simple PaperThinDisguise, rendering him like a MasterOfDisguise (or those people like MedievalMorons). Those tropes would be important in the solution the Narrator settles on later.

** Literature/Ivanhoe: The Reader mentions this novel as one of the books on the genre of ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', HistoricalFiction. The point is that Ivanhoe is full of AnachronismStew that one might call it a sort of HollywoodHistory, and just like Macbeth, uses generously ArtisticLicenseHistory. Also, Ivanhoe has his protagonist fooling people who had knew him all his life with a simple PaperThinDisguise, rendering him like a MasterOfDisguise (or those people like MedievalMorons). Those tropes would be important in the solution the Narrator settles on later.

** Literature/Ivanhoe: The Reader mentions this novel as one of the books on the genre of ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', HistoricalFiction. The point is that Ivanhoe is full of AnachronismStew that one might call it a sort of HollywoodHistory, and just like Macbeth, uses generously ArtisticLicenseHistory. Also, Ivanhoe has his protagonist fooling people who had knew him all his life with a simple PaperThinDisguise, rendering him like a MasterOfDisguise (or those people like MedievalMorons). Those tropes would be important in the solution the Natarrator settles on later.

** Literature/Ivanhoe: The Reader mentions this novel as one of the books on the genre of [[Theatre/Macbeth Macbeth]], HistoricalFiction. The point is that Ivanhoe is full of AnachronismStew that one might call it a sort of HollywoodHistory, and just like Macbeth, uses generously ArtisticLicenseHistory. Also, Ivanhoe has his protagonist fooling people who had knew him all his life with a simple PaperThinDisguise, rendering him like a MasterOfDisguise (or those people like MedievalMorons). Those tropes would be important in the solution the Natarrator settles on later.

* ShoutOut: The Reader's credentials are established with references to Creator/AgathaChristie and (the now-less-famous) David Frome.

* DeadPersonImpersonation: In the theory the reader settles on, [[spoiler:Lady Macbeth's father killed Duncan, and hearing someone coming, hid in the bed to make whoever-it-was think Duncan was still alive. It was Lady Macbeth, who later remarks that Duncan "resembled my father as he slept"]].

* InstantMysteryJustDeleteScene: Macbeth is shown going in to commit murder on Duncan, but the action cuts away without showing the murder itself, which is a sure sign, the reader says, that he didn't actually do it.
* TheLawOfConservationOfDetail: In the theory the reader settles on, the murderer is [[spoiler:the unnamed old man in Act II scene 4]], since otherwise why bother introducing a new character just for one scene?

* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: Parodied when a GenreSavvy DetectiveDrama reader mistakes the book of [[{{Theatre/Macbeth}} ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'']] for a DetectiveDrama, → TheReveal of the identity of the real murderer, menacing the [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespearian]] [[LitClassTropes canon]] of the last four hundred years.

* NeverTheObviousSuspect: The whole thing gets started when the reader decides Macbeth must really be innocent because he's such an obvious suspect.
* ShoutOut: The reader's credentials are established with references to Creator/AgathaChristie and (the now-less-famous) David Frome.
* SuspectExistenceFailure: Parodied. The reader suspects Banquo at first, but then he's the next to die. "At first I suspected Banquo. And then of course, he was the second person killed. That was good right in there, that part. The person you suspect of the first murder should always be the second victim."
* TakingTheHeat: The reader explains any bits where Macbeth and Lady Macbeth express guilt as being down to each thinking the other did it, and trying to take the heat.
* WrongGenreSavvy: The reader who applies detective tropes to ''Macbeth''.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: Combined with ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The name of the play is [[{{Theatre/Macbeth}} ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'']], [[CaptainObvious because Shakespeare wrote it as a play]] in [[{{Tragedy}} the tragedy genre]], but the title of this short story (''TheMacbethMurderMystery'') [[DeathOfTheAuthor interprets the play]] with the [[MysteryTropes Murder]] [[MysteryTropes Mistery]] [[DetectiveDrama genre]].

* FunnyForeigner: There are two examples: A ShoutOut to [[Literature/HerculePoirot Hercule Poirot]], a fictional detective who invokes this trope [[ObfuscatingStupidity to hide his cunning]] as a detective, and played straight with the Reader (the narrator places his tale in an ''hotel in the English lake country'' and calls the Reader an American Lady nine times), a silly woman who insists on applying DetectiveDrama tropes to ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' making a fool of herself and... What do you mean that DumbassHasAPoint??

* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: Parodied when a GenreSavvy DetectiveDrama reader mistakes the book of [[{{Theatre/Macbeth}} ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'']] for a DetectiveDrama, and ends revealing the true identity of the real murderer, menacing the [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespearian]] [[LitClassTropes canon]] of the last four hundred years.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: Combined with ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The name of the play is [[{{Theatre/Macbeth}} ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'']], [[CaptainObvious because Shakespeare wrote it as a play]] in [[{{Tragedy}} the tragedy genre]], but the title of this short story (''TheMacbethMurderMystery'') [[DeathOfTheAuthor interprets the play]] with the [[MysteryTropes Murder]] [[MysteryTropes Mistery genre]].

* NamelessNarrative: Neither the reader of detective novels nor the person she discusses her theories with is given a name.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: Combined with ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The name of the play is [[{{Theatre/Macbeth}} ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'']], [[CaptainObvious because Shakespeare wrote it as a play]] in [[{{Tragedy}} the tragedy genre]], but the title of this short story (''TheMacbethMurderMystery'') [[DeathOfTheAuthor interprets the play]] with the [[MysteryTropes Murder Mistery genre]].

->"''But don't you see?" said the American lady. “It would spoil everything if you could figure out right away who did it.. Shakespeare was far too smart for that. I’ve read that people never have figured out 'Hamlet,' so it isn't likely Shakespeare would have made 'Macbeth' as simple as it seems." ''"

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: Combined with ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The name of the play is [[Theatre/Macbeth ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'']], [[CaptainObvious because Shakespeare wrote it as a play]] in [[{{Tragedy}} the tragedy genre]], but the title of this short story (''TheMacbethMurderMystery'') [[DeathOfTheAuthor interprets the play]] with the [[MysteryTropes Murder Mistery genre]].

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: Combined with ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The name of the play is [[{{Theatre/Macbeth}} ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'']], [[CaptainObvious because Shakespeare wrote it as a play]] in [[{{Tragedy}} the tragedy genre]], but the title of this short story (''TheMacbethMurderMystery'') [[DeathOfTheAuthor interprets the play]] with the [[MysteryTropes Murder Mistery genre]].

* LiteraryAllusionTItle: Combined with ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The name of the play is [[Theatre/Macbeth ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'']], [[CaptainObvious because Shakespeare wrote it as a play]] in [[{{Tragedy}} the tragedy genre]], but the title of this short story (''TheMacbethMurderMystery'') [[DeathOfTheAuthor interprets the play]] with the [[MysteryTropes Murder Mistery genre]].

* SuspectExistenceFailure: The reader suspects Banquo at first, but then he's the next to die.