History NotMeThisTime / Literature

* In the second [[Literature/{{Goosebumps}} Night of the Living Dummy]] book, the heroine, her sister, and her parents enter the sister's room to find that all her bedroom walls have been graffiti'd. The mother yells at the youngest brother, a notorious prankster, but he stops her by saying that ''this'' time he's innocent, and that [[EvenEvilHasStandards this is messed-up even for him.]] It turns out that Slappy did it, but who'd believe ''that?''
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** Harry and Ron use Polyjuice potion ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberofSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]'' to imitate Crabbe and Goyle, Draco Malfoy's two mooks, in the hopes of getting Draco to admit that he's the heir of Slytherin, and thus the cause of all the shenanigans happening at Hogwarts that year. Instead, they hear Draco ranting about how thrilled he is that it's happening and how he'd love to congratulate whoever is actually behind it.
** Similarly, in the film version of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'', Ron initially guesses when there is a long line towards the Fat Lady that Neville Longbottom must have forgotten the password again, only to learn from Neville's exclamation that he was behind Ron the whole time, and thus couldn't have been the one keeping them out of the common room. It's revealed shortly afterwards that the reason they aren't allowed access is because [[spoiler:the Fat Lady was scared away from her painting]].
** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', Snape blames Harry's trio for stealing the Polyjuice Potion ingredients missing from his stores. Although they were guilty of that 2 books ago, they are not responsible for it this time -- [[spoiler:Barty Crouch is]]. Since Snape didn't mention ''when'' the ingredients were stolen, Harry thought he ''was'' talking about the original theft, so he was simply lying that he wasn't behind it.
** Also in ''The Goblet of Fire'', after Filch is again the victim of one of Peeves' practical jokes, he finds Harry's golden egg, recognizes it as something belonging to one of the Triwizard Tournament contestants, and quickly accuses Peeves of stealing. Actually, Harry had simply dropped it while sneaking around with his cloak of invisibility while figuring out a clue. Peeves quickly makes himself scarce, and Snape - who is all-too-often the StraightMan to Filch - convinces the caretaker to forget about it. (Of course, Filch would likely have taken ''any'' opportunity to pin something serious on Peeves, given how much of a headache the guy often caused him.)

* Simon Heap in ''[[Literature/SeptimusHeap Darke]]'' has a hard time convincing Septimus and Sir Hereward that he ''isn't'' to blame for the [[SphereOfDestruction Darke Domaine]].
%%* Cruella in the sequel to ''Literature/TheHundredAndOneDalmatians''.
* In ''Literature/BlackLegion'', the Inquisition accuses Khayon of wide variety of war crimes and atrocities. While he doesn't deny that he committed multiple genocides, he takes his time pointing out just what he ''wasn't'' responsible for.
* [[Literature/HonorHarrington Albrecht Detweiler]]'s centuries-long conspiracy to destroy the Kingdom of Manticore and Republic of Haven -- among others -- is responsible for pretty much every bad thing that has happened in the history of the two star kingdoms, going back centuries. When the leaders of those two star nations find this out, they're justifiably and incandescently angry and immediately begin making plans to vaporize him into subatomic particles, meanwhile laying any number of charges at his door. Those charges are all very accurate -- except for the one about [[BrickJoke Arnold Giancola]].
-->'''Benjamin:''' In fact, they're busy telling the Manty Parliament -- and, I'm sure, the Havenite Congress and all the ''rest'' of the fucking galaxy! -- all about the [[spoiler:Mesan]] plan to conquer the known universe. In fact, you'll be astonished to know that [[spoiler:Secretary of State Arnold Giancola]] was in the nefarious [[spoiler:Alignment]]'s pay when he deliberately maneuvered [[spoiler:Haven back into shooting at the Manties]]!\\
'''Albrecht:''' What? ''(blinks in surprise)'' We didn't have anything to do with that!
* ''Literature/JudgeDee'': In ''The Chinese Maze Murders'', Judge Dee hears many horrid tales about SmallTownTyrant Chian: that he has been extorting merchants, kidnapping people for slave labor, burning down the homes of his enemies, sending false reports to the Imperial Court, and committing murders. After he arrests Chian, Dee learns that Chian is guilty of most of these offenses (and a few even worse acts of treason that don't initially come to light) but not murdering a previous magistrate or abducting a blacksmith's daughter to be his concubine.
* ''Literature/{{Linked}}'': After being exposed as the culprit behind painting twenty-seven swastikas around town, [[spoiler:Pamela Bynes]] reveals that it was actually twenty-six, and that the first one was painted by someone else, which inspired [[spoiler:Pamela]] to act on [[spoiler:her]] own racism.
* ''Literature/SoonIWillBeInvincible'': Dr. Impossible has escaped from prison for the thirteenth time and his heroic nemesis Corefire is missing. Could these two incidents possibly be unrelated? As it turns out... yes, much to Dr. Impossible's annoyance.
* In ''Literature/LastSacrifice'', Rose asks [[spoiler:Victor Dashkov]] if he had anything to do with the murder of Queen Tatiana Ivashkov. He replies negatively and adds "I have much more sophisticated methods to accomplish my goals".
* In ''While My Pretty One Sleeps'' by Creator/MaryHigginsClark, [[TheMafia Mafia]] boss Nicky Sepetti, who's about to be sent to prison, makes a threatening remark to Police Commissioner Myles Kearny about how [[ShameIfSomethingHappened his wife and daughter might need some protection]]. When Myles's wife Renata is murdered less than two months later, everyone naturally assumes that Sepetti was behind it. He denies this until the day he dies (literally), but the police and Renata's family are not convinced. [[spoiler:It turns out Renata's murder was completely unrelated to the Mafia; she was designing a glamorous fashion line and a designer she knew killed her so he could steal her ideas.]]
* [[AlphaBitch Zadie Smith]] of ''Literature/ReconstructingAmelia'' does some truly horrific things over the course of the novel. She hazes all new members of her clique, bullies everyone, including her best friend, cheats, drinks heavily, manipulates everyone around her, [[spoiler:outs Amelia as a lesbian against her will, becoming the ringleader in a school-wide hazing session]], but in spite of all that, she did ''not'' [[spoiler:kill Amelia. That was actually Sylvia.]]
* In ''Literature/DoraWilkSeries'', a fertility witch notorious for less-than-legal spells vehemently denies turning three {{muggle}}s into toads, and even points Dora and Witkacy at the real perpetrator.

* The second ''Literature/TheGirlFromTheMiraclesDistrict'' book opens with Nikita being poisoned right after a meeting with her ArchnemesisMom. She calls her mother and tells her that she knows Irena did it - to Irena's absolute surprise, as she doesn't even know something has happened to her daughter.

* In the ''Literature/DiogenesClub'' story "Literature/ColdSnap", the director of a weather research station attempts to wipe out the human race with an engineered ice age. The research station is owned by the DiabolicalMastermind Derek Leech, the GreaterScopeVillain of the series, who insists that he has nothing to do with the director's plot and had no idea the man had a private agenda. He's telling the truth: The director is just so boring that nobody involved in hiring him could pay attention to him long enough to realize what he was up to. (However, that doesn't mean that Leech is averse to taking advantage of the situation now that he's been alerted to it...)
* [[DefiedTrope Defied]] in ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror.'' [[TheAtoner Daylen]] knows that he's blamed for multitudes of crimes that he never committed, but isn't interested in clearing things up, as almost everyone considers him BeyondRedemption, anyway. [[spoiler: During his trial at the end, he even pleads guilty to all the crimes he never committed.]]
* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'':
** Inverted with King Gavilar's death. Right before he dies, Gavilar tells his assassin to tell Thaidakar that he's too late. The assassin doesn't know who that is, and Gavilar names two more people he suspected wanted him dead. None of them are behind this plot; it was the Parshendi, the people he was about to sign a peace treaty with.
** Lin Davar abuses his family, but [[spoiler:he didn't kill his first wife. His daughter Shallan did in self-defense, and he hid her crime for years]].
* ''Literature/TheCatWhoSeries'': In book #9 (''The Cat Who Went Underground''), when Qwill discovers a string of suspicious deaths or disappearances, all carpenters, he comes to suspect a serial killer. In the end, it turns out they were only responsible for five of the six deaths being investigated. The last one was Captain Phlogg, a local alcoholic and phony who sells fake antiques and was a ship's carpenter rather than a captain like he always claimed, and who ultimately and accidentally did himself in via his drinking habit.
* ''Literature/TheLostFleet:'' In ''Boundless,'' Geary and Desjani are surprised to find that Gioninni's claims of shock and ignorance about a MilitaryMoonshiner are genuine for once, and he's outraged about someone running a racket behind his back.
* ''Literature/MagicBallerina'': "Delphie and the Fairy Godmother" centers on some chaos in Enchantia that, for once, isn't the Rat King's fault. In fact, this time around even he was a victim! Of course, this being [[ChronicVillainy the Rat King]], it takes some time for Delphie and the Lilac Fairy to trust his story, but when they do, EnemyMine ensues for the rest of the story.

* In ''Literature/TheLunarChronicles,'' [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen Levana]] commits mass murder, hopes to take over the Earth, and her pursuit of power led to her trying to kill [[EvilAunt her toddler niece]] and actually killing [[spoiler:her husband, whom she truly loved]]. Despite everyone's assumptions, however, she ''didn't'' kill her sister Channary, the previous queen, who died from a suspicious illness. It's ironic, too, since [[AssholeVictim Channary's murder]] would have been [[TheDogBitesBack comparably justified]].
* The Demon King [[spoiler:Grisia Sun]] in ''Literature/TheLegendOfSunKnight'' is guilty of many things, such as [[BadBoss abusing his underlings for fun]], razing villages, and being an all-around Jerkass. But he is chagrined to learn that he was accused of kidnapping the eldest princess of Moon Orchard and then handing her off to his subordinate Silent Eagle when he became bored of her. Princess Alice actually ''eloped'' with and married Silent Eagle long before the Demon King came into the picture.
* ''Literature/OnTheStreetWhereYouLive'':
** Joel Lake is a sleazy career criminal and he did rob Ruth Koehler's house, but it turns out he [[spoiler:actually didn't kill Ruth and so Emily was morally in the clear when she got him off on the murder charge]]. Joel ''had'' mockingly told Emily after he was acquitted that he might've [[spoiler:killed Ruth]], but he only did that to make her uncomfortable after she turned down his sexual advances.
** Ned Koehler was the one who [[spoiler:actually killed his mother Ruth]], but he's also telling the truth about not stalking Emily Graham (he only went to her house once, on the night he was arrested for stalking her).
** [[spoiler:Eric Bailey]] is revealed to be Emily's stalker, but he has nothing to do with the murders in Spring Lake.

* In ''Literature/TheLunarChronicles,'' [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen Levana]]'s pursuit of power led her to kill her own husband, whom she truly loved, and try to kill [[EvilAunt her toddler niece]]. Surprisingly, however, she ''didn't'' kill her sister Channary, who was the previous queen and who died from regolith poisoning, which an elite Lunar would rarely be exposed to. It's ironic, too, since Channary's murder would have been [[TheDogBitesBack comparably justified]].

* ''Literature/JudgeDee'': In ''The Chinese Maze Murders'', Judge Dee hears many horrid tales about SmallTownTyrant Chian: that he has been extorting merchants, kidnapping people for slave labor, burning down the homes of his enemies, filling false reports to the Imperial Court, and committing murders. After he arrests Chian, Dee learns that Chian is guilty of most of these offenses (and a few even worse acts of treason that don't initially come to light) but not murdering a previous magistrate or abducting a blacksmith’s daughter to be his concubine.