List of mystery and crime novel tropes

This is a list of common mystery and crime tropes that you can use as inspiration in your own novel or writing. No matter if you’re writing a small town cozy mystery to a dark, suspenseful race-against-the-clock crime saga, you’ll find plenty of tropes that you can use in your book here.

What are tropes?

Tropes are common themes, plot devices or motifs in novels. In other words, they are common scenarios and patterns that take place in your novel.

For example, a common trope in a mystery novel is the lone detective, where the detective refuses to accept help from anyone and tries to go it alone. This “I can do it all” attitude often lands the detective in trouble and by the end of the narrative, they learn to accept help from those around.

List of mystery and crime novel tropes

Most of these tropes are self explanatory but to ensure this list is accessible to both new and veteran writers alike, I have written a short explanation for some tropes that may not be familiar to everyone.

Detective/protagonist tropes

• Unreliable narrator

• Amateur detective

• Femme fatale

• Consulting with a criminal

• Lone detective

• Working for the bad guys

• Bromance – the detective and their sidekick have a very close platonic relationship

• Defective detective

• Mysterious past

• Dark past

• Detective denouement

• Framed protagonist

• Kidnapped detective

• Sherlock Holmes

• Morally ambiguous

• Dual timelines – often used to show the missing or murdered person's perspective, or the detective's past

• Quirky detective

Motive tropes

• History returns

• Blackmail

• Accidental murder

• Murder for love

• Murder for inheritance

• Revenge

• Blackmail

• Extortion

• Affairs – you think they're the murderer but turns out they're just trying to cover up an affair!

• Star-crossed lovers

• Turf wars

• MacGuffin murder – when the murderer is in pursuit of a particular object or thing

• Class divides

• Conspiracy

• Supernatural – looks like there are ghosts or other supernatural forces at play here…

Solving the crime tropes

• Rock solid alibi

• Unreliable alibi

• Incompetent police

• Lightning-strike moment

• Fingerprints

• Scene has been wiped clean

• Trophies

• Unsolvable mystery – or so we think!

• Flashbacks

• Altered wills

• Caught on CCTV

• Hidden room or attic

• Cryptic note

• Hypnosis

• Red herring

Murder/crime tropes

• Where's the body?

• Cold case

• Misjudged death

• Multiple murders

• Cyanide

• "Perfect" crime

• Poison

• Suicide – or so we think!

Victim tropes

• Flawed victim

• Skeletons in the closet

• Dying message

• Past catches up with them

• Assumed dead turns up alive and well

• Missing person

• No one will miss the victim

Murderer/criminal tropes

• Everyone did it!

• Smart killer

• Consulting with the detective

• Murder to cover up a past crime

• Must be a professional

• Serial killer

• Doppelgangers

• Criminal plans to get caught

• Sympathetic killers

• Return to the scene of the crime

• Notes in the newspaper

• Copycat killer

• The one you least expect

Situation tropes

• Stuck together

• Light bulb moment

• The big reveal

• Amnesia

• Locked room

• Isolated setting

• Heists

• No way out

• Race against the clock

• The killer returns

• Race against time

• Catch before the killer strikes again

• Time jumps

• Sting operations

• Breaking in to investigate

• Recording the process

Suspect tropes

• Early suspect

• Unassuming suspect

• Alibis

• Detective suspect

• Everyone's a suspect

Side character tropes

• Nosy side character

• Someone's making a true crime podcast

• The psychic sleuth

• The sidekick

• Secret evil twin

• Nosy reporter

• The seemingly crazy person was right all along!

• Pickpockets

• Minor crime

• Psychiatrists

• Long-lost heir

• Tarot readers

• Undercover agents

• Conspiracy theorists