History WhatYouAreInTheDark / Literature

* One part in ''Literature/TheNameOfTheWind'' has Kvothe and his [[LoveInterest almost love interest]] Denna alone, at night, curled up to each other for warmth. Denna had eaten some denner resin (a rather potent drug) and Kvothe knew she wouldn't remember a thing that had happened while she was high on it in the morning. He was tempted, once or twice, to rape her, but resisted, because ''he'' would know, even if she wouldn't.

** In ''Literature/SmallGods'', Brutha contemplates leading Vorbis into a trap in the labyrinth. He thinks: "Who would ever know? I would" and doesn't do it. Later, when Brutha [[spoiler:carries a comatose Vorbis]] through the desert, he's In The Dark the entire time. The Great God Om keeps reminding him of this, without success. And for a ''third'' time, the book ends with [[spoiler:Brutha dying of old age at over a hundred - only to find Vorbis's spirit has never moved on. Despite Death himself pointing out with a monster Vorbis was, and the total lack of witnesses, Brutha leads Vorbis "across the desert" once more]].

** In Creator/JamesSwallow's ''Black Tide'', the final volume of his ''Literature/BloodAngels'' quartet, Rafen bids goodbye to his opposite number from the Flesh Tearers' chapter, Sergeant Gorn. Rafen points out that, during the FinalBattle with the BigBad, Gorn could have pushed Rafen off the ledge, defeated the villain, and taken the prize and all the glory for himself, and no one would have known. Gorn admits that the idea crossed his mind, but nods to a statute of their progenitor, Sanguinius, and says, ''"he was watching."''

** In Creator/JamesSwallow's ''Black Tide'', the final volume of his Blood Angels quartet, Rafen bids goodbye to his opposite number from the Flesh Tearers' chapter, Sergeant Gorn. Rafen points out that, during the FinalBattle with the BigBad, Gorn could have pushed Rafen off the ledge, defeated the villain, and taken the prize and all the glory for himself, and no one would have known. Gorn admits that the idea crossed his mind, but nods to a statute of their progenitor, Sanguinius, and says, ''"he was watching."''

** In Creator/JamesSwallow's ''Black Tide'', the final volume of his Blood Angels quartet, Rafen bids goodbye to his opposite number from the Flesh Tearers' chapter, Sergeant Gorn. Rafen points out that, during the FinalBattle with the BigBad, Gorn could have pushed Rafen off the ledge, defeated the villain, and taken the prize and all the glory for himself, and no one would have known. Gorn nods to a statute of their progenitor, Sanguinius, and says, "he was watching."

* ''The Glass Inferno'', one of two novels which inspired ''Film/TheToweringInferno'', features several cases of this, during a skyscraper fire.

* In the Creator/DaleBrown novel ''Fatal Terrain'', Patrick [=McLanahan=] warns his group that due to the classified nature of their mission, even if they succeed no one will congratulate them, and at worst [[spoiler:they will be condemned by their own side]]. On the other hand, if they choose to back down and face [[spoiler:trial in a federal court]], it is likely that [[spoiler:they will come out in a position to maintain Sky Masters, Inc]]. None of his group flinch from it.
* ''The Firm'' by John Grisham does this in a more conventional way, with the main character tempted to adultery. Unusually, he gives in, but doing so turns out to be a ''very'' bad idea.

** Played much more darkly in Victor Hugo's other famous novel, ''Notre Dame de Paris''. Esmeralda is about to be hanged for the murder of Phoebus. Phoebus, quite alive, is standing in the crowd and nobody recognizes him. Revealing that he's still alive would put him in no real legal trouble at all. He lets them hang her.