Editing Whodunit (section)

==Use and variations==

===Howdunnit===

An important variation on the whodunit is the [[inverted detective story]] (also referred to as a ''howcatchem'' or ''howdunnit'') in which the guilty party and the crime are openly revealed to the reader/audience and the story follows the investigator's efforts to find out the truth while the criminal attempts to prevent it.  The ''[[Columbo]]'' TV movie series is the classic example of this kind of detective story (''[[Law & Order: Criminal Intent]]'' and ''[[The Streets of San Francisco]]'' also fit into this genre). This tradition dates back to the inverted detective stories of [[R Austin Freeman]], and reached an apotheosis of sorts in ''[[Malice Aforethought]]'' written by Francis Iles (a pseudonym of [[Anthony Berkeley]]). In the same vein is Iles's ''[[Before the Fact]]'' (1932), which became the [[Alfred Hitchcock|Hitchcock]] movie ''[[Suspicion (1941 film)|Suspicion]]''. Successors of the psychological suspense novel include [[Patricia Highsmith]]'s ''[[This Sweet Sickness]]'' (1960), [[Simon Brett]]'s ''[[A Shock to the System (1990 film)|A Shock to the System]]'' (1984), and [[Stephen Dobyns]]'s ''[[The Church of Dead Girls]]'' (1997).

===Whydunit===

A whydunit is a story in which the central mystery is the motive, rather than the perpetrator. A notable example is ''[[The Secret History]]'' by [[Donna Tartt]], in which the killers and the circumstances of the murder are revealed on the first page.<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacDonald |first1=Moira |title=For your crime-fiction reading: a whydunit, a classic and series recommended by readers {{!}} The Plot Thickens |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/books/for-your-crime-fiction-reading-this-month-a-whydunit-a-classic-and-several-series-recommended-by-readers-the-plot-thickens/ |website=[[The Seattle Times]] |access-date=6 May 2025 |date=13 May 2020}}</ref>

===Parody and spoof===
In addition to standard humor, [[parody]], spoof, and [[pastiche]] have had a long tradition within the field of crime fiction. Examples of pastiche are the [[Sherlock Holmes]] stories written by [[John Dickson Carr]], and hundreds of similar works by such authors as [[E. B. Greenwood]]. As for parody, the first Sherlock Holmes spoofs appeared shortly after [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] published his first stories. Similarly, there have been innumerable [[Agatha Christie]] send-ups. The idea is to exaggerate and mock the most noticeable features of the original and, by doing so, amuse especially those readers who are also familiar with that original.

There are also "reversal" mysteries, in which the conventional structure is deliberately inverted. One of the earliest examples of this is ''[[Trent's Last Case (novel)|Trent's Last Case]]'' (1914) by [[Edmund Clerihew Bentley|E. C. Bentley]] (1875–1956). Trent, a very able amateur detective, investigates the murder of Sigsbee Manderson. He finds many important clues, exposes several false clues, and compiles a seemingly unassailable case against a suspect. He then learns that that suspect cannot be a murderer, and that while he found nearly all of the truth, his conclusion is wrong. Then, at the end of the novel, another character tells Trent that he always knew the other suspect was innocent, because "I shot Manderson myself." These are Trent's final words to the killer:

{{blockquote|"I'm cured. I will never touch a crime-mystery again. The Manderson affair shall be Philip Trent's last case. His high-blown pride at length breaks under him." Trent's smile suddenly returned. "I could have borne everything but that last revelation of the impotence of human reason. [...] I have absolutely nothing left to say, except this: you have beaten me. I drink your health in a spirit of self-abasement. And ''you'' shall pay for the dinner."}}

Another example of a spoof, which at the same time shows that the borderline between serious mystery and its parody is necessarily blurred, is U.S. mystery writer [[Lawrence Block]]'s novel ''The Burglar in the Library'' (1997). The burglar of the title is Bernie Rhodenbarr, who has booked a weekend at an English-style country house just to steal a signed, and therefore very valuable, first edition of [[Raymond Chandler|Chandler]]'s ''[[The Big Sleep]]'', which he knows has been sitting there on one of the shelves for more than half a century. Alas, immediately after his arrival a dead body turns up in the library, the room is sealed off, and Rhodenbarr has to track down the murderer before he can enter the library again and start hunting for the precious book.

''[[Murder by Death]]'' is [[Neil Simon]]'s spoof of many of the best-known whodunit sleuths and their [[sidekick|sidekicks]].<ref name=NYT>{{cite web|work=[[The New York Times]]|title=Murder By Death (1976) Simon's Breezy 'Murder by Death'|author=Canby, Vincent|author-link=Vincent Canby|date=June 24, 1976|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9501E5DE1E38E53BBC4C51DFB066838D669EDE}}</ref> In the 1976 film, [[Sam Spade]] (from ''[[The Maltese Falcon (novel)|The Maltese Falcon]]'') becomes Sam Diamond, Hercule Poirot becomes Milo Perrier, and so on.<ref name=NYT/> The characters are all gathered in a large country house and given clues to solve the mystery.<ref name=NYT/>

[[Tom Stoppard]]'s ''[[The Real Inspector Hound]]'' is a send-up of crime fiction novels and features a bumbling detective.

The 2019 film ''[[Knives Out]]'' is a modern take on the classic ''whodunit'' by deconstructing the narrative form and adds a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor.

===Homicide investigation===
The term ''whodunit'' is also used among [[homicide]] investigators to describe a case in which the identity of the killer is not quickly apparent.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Auden |first=Wystan Hugh |title=The Guilty Vicarage |url=https://harpers.org/archive/1948/05/the-guilty-vicarage/ |access-date=December 10, 2024 |website=Harper's Magazine}}</ref> Since most homicides are committed by people with whom the victim is acquainted or related, a whodunit case is usually more difficult to solve.