murder mysteries
Clue-driven crime stories
Murder mysteries are a genre of fiction—novels, films, television shows, or games—centered on solving a killing.
The typical structure presents a victim, a detective or amateur sleuth, and a cast of suspects with motives, building toward the revelation of the murderer.
The term also describes social events where participants role-play to solve a fictional crime: We hosted a murder mystery dinner party for her birthday.
- suspectBelieve to be likely
- prime suspectMost probable perpetrator
- clueSolving aid
- smoking gunIrrefutable proof of wrongdoing
- whodunitCrime fiction identifying perpetrator
butler did it · detective · Nordic noir · red herring · cold case · dead body · investigation · hardboiled fiction · culprit · Agatha Christie · alibi · police procedural · puzzle · crime fiction · poison · denouement · amateur sleuth · armchair detective
- crime literaturetrue crime, crime fiction, detective novels, crime thrillers, police procedurals
- heavy viewingtrue crime docs, war documentaries, disaster films, conflict zones, cold cases
- group activitiesgroup games, voting, protest, group dance, group project
- crime fictiondetective fiction, detective novels, detective novel, detective, detective stories
- stage showsplays, musicals, dramas, comedies, tragedies
- dinner theaterdinner show, whodunit, melodrama, cabaret, supper club
murder mysteriesromantic comedies
Humorous films about love
romances · utopian fiction · lighthearted adventures · coming-of-age stories · travel memoirs
murder mysteriesliterary fiction
Prose emphasizing craft and depth
character studies · stream-of-consciousness · experimental fiction · slice-of-life · vignettes
mystery, murder, mysterious, murderer, murderous, mystify, mysteries, mystifying, murdering