History Main / CluelessMystery

* The mystery of which crewmates are "infected" at any point by the titular monster in Film/TheThing1982 to emphasize the confusion and fear. Any scene that involved a crew member infected by the monster before they died/were completely subsumed and attacking involved tricks to make it impossible to "solve". For example, a silhouette of the Thing early on is portrayed by a cast member and not any of the actual actors.

* Played with in ''Film/SherlockHolmes2009'' with Creator/RobertDowneyJr. TheReveal at the end [[spoiler: showing Lord Blackwood's whole "magic" premise as a facade]] involves several clues and details that were scarcely hinted at or never even mentioned. That said, all the crucial details ''do'' appear on screen; it's just that Holmes' investigation keeps the ''clues'' within the details unknown until TheReveal (one, which involves an explosion with a pink-ish tint to it, could be assumed to be a SpecialEffectFailure). This is faithful to how Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the original stories, which were not {{Fair Play Whodunnit}}s.

* ''VisualNovel/RagingLoop'' is entirely unsolvable by the player, and by PlayerCharacter Haruaki as well, as it is an entirely supernatural mystery whose rules aren't explained until said PlayerCharacter either stumbles onto the solution or bypasses them examples. While some elements [[spoiler:like how Chiemi has RippleEffectProofMemory similar to Haruaki's, can be inferred through hints given in-game]], several cannot and several elements become an outright RedHerring during the ending [[spoiler:partially as a result of the game DoingInTheWizard]]. Some of the story's mysteries aren't even explained until the NewGamePlus Revelations mode allows you to read other characters' thoughts, and even then there still are some story elements that remain mysterious, like for instance [[spoiler:exactly what the secret organization that was trying to stop the looping is, how they found out about the loop in the first place, what Meiko's deal is, or even what "Haruaki"'s real name is]].

* Just about every mystery in ''Manga/MajinTanteiNougamiNeuro'' is one of these, as Neuro uses his supernatural powers to find clues the audience can't and doesn't reveal them until after he uses psychokinesis to make [[TheWatson Yako]] point at the culprit. Arguably [[JJustifiedTrope justified]], as the manga focuses more on ''why'' humans commit crimes rather than ''how'', which is why extra attention is paid to each MotiveRant.

%% * Just about every mystery in ''Manga/MajinTanteiNougamiNeuro'' is one of these.

For example, Mr. Rich Guy has been killed. Characters A, B and C are established to have motives. Evidence points to characters A, C and also D, who doesn't have a motive but was suspiciously close by at the time of the murder. [[StrangerBehindTheMask The real criminal however, is Character Z, who shows up in the last ten minutes]] as the [[TheButlerDidIt waiter]] serving the frustrated police officer his coffee. [[TheDogWasTheMastermind He hasn't appeared before (or he did, but just for 30 seconds), and he was never considered in the investigation,]] but the protagonist reveals him as the culprit as the audience wonders what the hell just happened.

** This is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d within the stories, as Holmes himself frequently criticizes Watson for embellishing his investigations into "tasteless" action-drama novels to entertain the public, instead of properly detailing the "scientific methods" that Holmes' applies to solve them.

* [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated]] in ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'', a game about hunting a SerialKiller where the game straight-up ''[[LyingCreator lies to you]]'' repeatedly. A plot point relating to Ethan, the main one of the [[AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent multiple playable characters]], having a psychic link to the killer was cut from the game because the writers thought it was stupid- but all the scenes where he would black out whenever the killer went killing and then wake up somewhere else with a piece of origami in his hand were inexplicably left in the game, except now they have no explanation at all. Worst of all, in a game where you play as several different characters (and have the ability to hear their InnerMonologue), ''[[spoiler:you actually get to play as the killer]]'', and the game in no way lets you know this until TheReveal- he actually acts like [[spoiler:he's NOT the killer]] even inside his own head! At the start of the game, he actually interviews the mother of one of the victims and comes away from it thinking to himself "I didn't learn squat. Well, worth a try." This despite the fact that ''[[spoiler:he murdered her son himself!]]''

* One of [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara's]] main problems with ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'' is that the story follows this trope, but has to contrive unrealistic situations to explain why. Sue Dibny is murdered and the story spends six issues pointing out how many different people ''could'' have the motive, and how many different people ''could'' have the means, before each suspect is dismissed. Then at the end of the penultimate issue someone finds a real clue which definitively narrows it down to two suspects, neither of whom had any evidence suggesting them beforehand, and the murderer reveals themselves at the beginning of the final issue.

* The ''Literature/LordPeterWimsey'' novel ''Five Red Herrings'' is an edge case, with some people holding it's a FairPlayMystery (although a devilishly challenging one) and others holding that it's this. The detailed inventory of the victim's painting kit is the sticking point -- the reader is never explicitly told what Wimsey noticed about it that gave him the information he needed to identify the murderer, but the list of what ''is there'' is missing an item that ''should be there''. The dispute hinges on whether it's fair to expect the reader to know what items an oil painter absolutely would have in his kit when he's going out to paint a landscape, or not. (On the Fair Play side, we're told the relevant conclusion well before the conclusion: That the scene was set up by the killer, something is missing, and that the missing item is only really important in that it indicates the scene was set. Also, it doesn't require a very esoteric knowledge of oil painting; anyone even minimally aware of the mechanics should spot what is missing. It's an absolute requirement for doing oil painting of almost any sort.)[[labelnote:If you MUST know...]]It's a tube of white paint; white is used to tint other colors into more realistic hues, and the killer is known for pocketing tubes of paint to carry as spares.[[/labelnote]]

[[folder:Fanfic]]

* ''Literature/{{Circleverse}}'': Each book of ''Literature/TheCircleOpens'' has a crime central to the plot, requiring the four mages of the original books to play detective. The first two books are {{Reverse Whodunnit}}s, where the reader knows from the start who's responsible. The third is a fair play whodunnit until it outright reveals its criminal early in the story (turning the rest of the tale into another ReverseWhodunnit). The fourth, however, uses the clueless mystery format, where the culprit is someone who had never been introduced to the reader, who the characters had no previous interaction with and who had no other importance to the plot. More observant readers might have worked out which ''group'' the killer belonged to, but the fact that neither reader nor heroes could identify an individual was part of the book's social commentary. Even after the murderer ''is'' revealed, we are told very little about them.

** Right from the beginning in ''A Study In Scarlet'', despite Holmes (correctly) describing the murderer's appearance and even how he got to the scene of the crime in detail from the clues in the room, nobody even slightly resembling the murderer turns up until the last chapter of the London-based narrative.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', there is a bit of an {{inver|tedTrope}}sion. The ''readers'' have been given enough of the clues to figure out that Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen are products of incest, but the main "detective" Ned Stark isn't given enough information in the story to justify his conclusion of Jaime being the father. His investigation only concludes that Robert (or any Baratheon) can't be the children's father and therefore Cersei has had at least one affair; he only learns [[BrotherSisterIncest the truth]] when he interrogates the queen and [[INeverSaidItWasPoison Cersei's comments about Jamie]] leads him to ask her outright and she immediately gives him a BluntYes.

* In ''Literature/GameOfThrones'', there is a bit of an [[InvertedTrope inversion]]. The ''readers'' have been given enough of the clues to figure out that Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen are products of incest, but the main "detective" Ned Stark isn't given enough information in the story to justify his conclusion of Jaime being the father. His investigation only concludes that Robert (or any Baratheon) can't be the children's father and therefore Cersei has had at least one affair; he only learns [[BrotherSisterIncest the truth]] when he interrogates the queen and [[INeverSaidItWasPoison Cersei's comments about Jamie]] leads him to ask her outright and she immediately gives him a BluntYes.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Art/NefertitiBust: The fate of the bust's left iris is a mystery and the only clues available do no more than rank some of several theories as "less likely".
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