History Main / CluelessMystery

* Creator/AgathaChristie was especially fond of this trope.
** ''Literature/FourFiftyFromPaddington'': The whole story is about a woman who was murdered, and the suspicion that she married a deceased son of the super-rich Crackenthorpe family, and that one of the Crackenthorpes killed her in order to prevent her and her SomeoneToRememberHimBy son from claiming the estate. The ending reveals that the real killer is the affable village doctor, who hoped to marry a Crackenthorpe daughter, and that the dead lady was actually ''his'' wife who refused to give him a divorce. Nothing at all in the story hints at this before it's revealed.

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

* Some ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' storylines utilize this trope, which makes sense for the World's Greatest Detective. However, sometimes even ''he'' is unable to divine the true culprit because nothing pointed him to them, such as in ''ComicBook/TheLongHalloween'' or ''ComicBook/BatmanHush''.

* ''Literature/FourFiftyFromPaddington'': The whole story is about a woman who was murdered, and the suspicion that she married a deceased son of the super-rich Crackenthorpe family, and that one of the Crackenthorpes killed her in order to prevent her and her SomeoneToRememberHimBy son from claiming the estate. The ending reveals that the real killer is the affable village doctor, who hoped to marry a Crackenthorpe daughter, and that the dead lady was actually ''his'' wife who refused to give him a divorce. Nothing at all in the story hints at this before it's revealed.

** And then there's ''Manga/{{Secret}}'', Tonogai's third horror manga, where a school counselor tells the six students that survived a bus accident that three of them are murderers and he will turn the evidence to the police if they don't confess in one week. [[spoiler: While two of them indeed killed other people, it turns out the Mitomo, the school counselor himself, caused the accident that killed most of the students and tried to manipulate one of the survivors to kill the four boys of the group.]]

* 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.)

* The "mystery" of the [[ComicBook/Hulk2008 Red Hulk's]] true identity largely consisted of an endless series of red herrings and fake-outs without giving any actual clues to what it was. And when his identity was finally revealed, it ended up being somebody--[[spoiler: Thunderbolt Ross]]--who had been explicitly ruled out as suspect earlier in the storyline. ( [[ActuallyADoombot Life Model Decoys]] were used to explain it away.)

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* ''Series/{{Monk}}'s'': One first season episode played this concept rather effectively both in-universe and for the audience. Sharona's son accidentally witnesses a murder in a hotel. Monk works with the head of security to investigate, but they cannot find any clues (with the few they do find disappearing). [[spoiler: It turns out to be the cleaning staff, who simply cleaned up the scene of the crime and removed the evidence whenever it was discovered. They would have gotten away with it if Monk didn't figure out at the last minute where they hid the body]].

[[folder:Anime And Manga]]

* In the movie ''Air Force One'' after they regain control of the plane they are forced to make an insane mid-air escape. When a Secret Service agent refuses to go the end of the line to die so the others can live, someone yells at him "So ''you're'' the traitor!". He is but that refusal proves nothing. Furthermore, up to that point there's been no mention of a traitor among the hostages, just the implicit notion that ''someone'' on the inside had to help the terrorists get on plane disguised as journalists without any proper vetting, and give them access to the Secret Service's weapons storage.

* 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, but how he jumps from there to "Cersei is [[BrotherSisterIncest schtupping her brother]]" is never explained.

* ''Film/HarryPotter'': While the [[Literature/HarryPotter'' books]] are {{Fair Play Whodunnit}}s, the films sometimes omit the clues.

* The Famicom Detective Club games have a knack for doing this, rather annoyingly since you'd think a game about murder mysteries would require you, the detective, to actually solve the case. Nah, you can get through the entire game by just asking every single question to every single person. It's basically just a book with a Rubik's Cube that must be solved before you flip the page.

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* In the movie ''Air Force One'' after they regain control of the plane they are forced to make an insane mid-air escape. When a Secret Service agent refuses to go the end of the line to die so the others can live, someone yells at him "So ''you're'' the traitor!". He is but that refusal proves nothing. Furthermore, up to that point there's been no mention of a traitor among the hostages.

** [[spoiler:And after everybody leaves, Lionel Twain removes his mask to reveal that the [[Literature/HerculePoirot Poirot]] {{Expy}}'s screwball solution was ''right''.]]

* While the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books are {{Fair Play Whodunnit}}s, they tend to become this in [[Film/HarryPotter movie format]] (mainly the earlier ones). For example, the second movie contains absolutely no evidence pointing to [[spoiler:Ginny]]. In fact, she gets so little screen time that by the climax you probably won't even remember who she is. And TheReveal in the third film borders on nonsensical if you haven't already read the book. The fourth film, at least, rectified this somewhat by having [[spoiler: Moody periodically drink Not Pumpkin Juice, which, coupled with references to someone possibly brewing Polyjuice Potion, at least gives you a chance to work part of it out.]]
** At one point, [[spoiler: Fake!Moody does Crouch Jr's trademark facial tick (quickly licking his lips)]] - a trait that was not present in the novel - [[spoiler: in front of Crouch Sr]], to his horror.
* ''Film/TheBoneCollector'' -- all that fuss, all that detective work, and the killer turns out to be [[spoiler:...Some guy introduced in the beginning of the movie; a newspaper headline glimpsed for about 2.2 seconds during the opening credits turns out to cover the killer's backstory.]] In the book, however, the killer ''had'' appeared before. Hell, he even [[spoiler: had a MeaningfulName]].
* In ''Film/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'', [[Creator/SeanConnery Allan Quatermain]] correctly deduces the true identity of the BigBad, known simply as the Phantom. At no time, not even in the deleted scenes, [[BatDeduction is it ever explained how he figured this out]]. Exactly one clue is given, when TheDragon calls the Phantom by his real first name, but the name is such a common one [[spoiler:(James)]] that it's hardly a clue at all.
** Three clues are given, but they are extremely obscure and easy to miss. His first name is called out [[spoiler: "Run James!"]] the assistant who records his message addresses him [[spoiler: "Ready to record, Professor"]] and his alias; [[spoiler: M]]. Put it together and you have [[spoiler: Professor James M]] - along with knowing he's a villain in a MassivelyMultiplayerCrossover version of Victorian London.

* Like Literature/NeroWolfe, Creator/AgathaChristie is often accused of writing these, although a careful rereading will usually reveal that the clues ''were'' there, but were insignificant and easily overlooked, obscure, or misleading. One noteworthy exception is ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'', where there are really only three clues to the identity of the killer, and all of them are deliberately written in a way that makes them nearly impossible to ''not'' be misinterpreted.
** There are only three clues that [[spoiler: the judge himself]] ''admits'' to, but those aren't the only ones in the book. [[spoiler: For example, isn't the fact that "U.N. Owen" summed up the accusations like a hanging judge and even asked if the "defendants" had anything to say in their defense a clue?]]
** There's also a major and obvious-in-hindsight clue given in the penultimate chapter where the police sum up the evidence: namely, that [[spoiler:the gun was found outside of Wargrave's room, instead of in the room where Vera — seemingly the last owner of it and the last person alive on the island — hanged herself]]. Most readers are unlikely to spot this clue during their first reading, however, as the police unwittingly bark up the wrong tree entirely (and by extension, the unknowing reader too) by not even ''considering'' that [[spoiler:anyone outside of Armstrong, Blore, Lombard, or Vera could have been the murderer, even when they systematically prove it impossible that any of these four could have done it]].
** ''Literature/FourFiftyFromPaddington'' is a more legitimate example of a Christie clueless mystery. The whole story is about a woman who was murdered, and the suspicion that she married a deceased son of the super-rich Crackenthorpe family, and that one of the Crackenthorpes killed her in order to prevent her and her SomeoneToRememberHimBy son from claiming the estate. The ending reveals that the real killer is the affable village doctor, who hoped to marry a Crackenthorpe daughter, and that the dead lady was actually ''his'' wife who refused to give him a divorce. Nothing at all in the story hints at this before it's revealed.

*** To be mildly fair to Doyle, some of the examples are '''almost''' "fair play", in that we have ''almost'' all the evidence that Holmes has; in The Hound of the Baskervilles, for example, the fact that Holmes fixates on the portrait, and yet it looks nothing like either of the contemporary Baskervilles we know about, along with the evidence we have that indicates that there is a human being involved in the "haunting", gives us a strong hint that [[spoiler:we've met somebody who closely resembles the portrait]].

* 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, but how he jumps from there to "Cersei is [[BrotherSisterIncest schlupping it up with her brother]]" is never explained.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E7TheUnicornAndTheWasp "The Unicorn and the Wasp"]] is set up like a mystery novel. However, one important clue is a piece of ImportedAlienPhlebotinum whose function is not explained or even hinted at until near the end of the episode. Which is rather appropriate since Creator/AgathaChristie is a character...
** What's funny about that episode is that, from the Doctor's perspective, it ''really is'' a Fair Play mystery, because he takes the evidence at face value. Christie is baffled only because she thinks the Doctor's pulling her leg with talk of aliens.
** There's actually two mysteries in the episode (who is "The Unicorn" and what's the deal with the 6' tall wasp monster). One is Fair Play, one is not.

* Done in several episodes of ''Series/{{Monk}}'s'' latter seasons, when the writing team abandoned the standard comedy/mystery format to just have a comedy episode that happened to have a mystery in the background but the audience isn't supposed to pay any attention to said mystery.
** One first season episode played this concept rather effectively both in-universe and for the audience. Sharona's son accidentally witnesses a murder in a hotel. Monk works with the head of security to investigate, but they cannot find any clues (with the few they do find disappearing). [[spoiler: It turns out to be the cleaning staff, who simply cleaned up the scene of the crime and removed the evidence whenever it was discovered. They would have gotten away with it if Monk didn't figure out at the last minute where they hid the body]].

** It should be noted, though, that those flaws don't exist in the short story the [=TV=] episode was based on; the whole "going to see a play" part is padding added for the adaptation, and there is no servant at all.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' is sometimes accused of this, since one of the major parts of figuring out the culprit in a mystery--the motive--isn't revealed until the murderer [[MotiveRant rants about it to the party]] during the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. That lack of a foreseeable reason for the killings is one of the main reasons why TheReveal comes right out of left field (unless the player is metagaming).
** That being said, the murderer does [[INeverSaidItWasPoison make a couple crucial slip-ups]] that are major red flags if you're paying attention. They don't appear until you're already very close to the above-mentioned [[TheReveal Reveal]] though.
** There are a number of small clues prior to TheReveal, which are extremely easy to overlook and are only really viable clues if you already suspect that character. For example, [[spoiler:he likes to brag about how smart he is. The characters (and you, likely) think that he's being a KnowNothingKnowItAll but he really, really means it.]] A player might also notice how often [[spoiler: his apparent bumbling sabotages the investigation, such as when he draws away the team members protecting Rise]] and wonder whether those actions are intentional.
** ''VideoGame/Persona4DancingAllNight'' is set up as a "whodunnit" mystery. Namely, who is the mastermind who created the Midnight Stage, and who is dragging people into it via the cursed video. [[spoiler:This is impossible to work out as the culprit turns out to be a last minute surprise god called Mikunara-no-kami--the collective consciousness of people who long for bonds without pain--that the game doesn't even hint at until the reveal. The game attempts to levy this by doing much of the deductive reasoning via Kanami, whose shadow Mikunara-no-kami was guised as, but it doesn't really work given that the player cannot logically work out who, out of the cast, could have orchestrated the game's events.]]

* [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] in Creator/WilliamsElectronics' ''[[Pinball/WHODunnit WHO dunnit]].'' The clues for each case are just illustrations on the playfield and don't have any specific relevance to a particular case. On the other hand, interrogating a suspect always provides a clue to the killer's identity, allowing attentive players to easily solve it.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E3ElementaryDearData", this trope causes Data's initial attempts at a Sherlock Holmes holodeck adventure to be disappointing. At first, all the holodeck does is present Holmes' actual cases or mashups of them, and Data solves them instantly because he has them all memorized. It's only after the participants ask for an ''original'' Holmes-like mystery that Data engages in actual investigation and deduction.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Elementary, Dear Data", this trope causes Data's initial attempts at a Sherlock Holmes holodeck adventure to be disappointing. At first, all the holodeck does is present Holmes' actual cases or mashups of them, and Data solves them instantly because he has them all memorized. It's only after the participants ask for an ''original'' Holmes-like mystery that Data engages in actual investigation and deduction.

* ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel:'' The "[[ComicBook/UltimateDoomsday Ultimate Doom]]" trilogy starts off as one of these. Multiple characters and places throughout the Ultimate universe are attacked by mysterious aliens or giant tentacle things. Someone is behind it, but absolutely no hints, clues or {{Foreshadowing}} is offered, before [[spoiler:it turns out to be [[ComicBook/TheMaker Reed Richards]], who's gone insane and evil, despite his apparently being one of the first victims of the attacks.]]