A ''whodunit'' or ''whodunnit'' (a colloquial

elision In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...

of "Who asdone it?") is a complex plot-driven variety of

detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as sp ...

in which the puzzle regarding who committed the

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...

is the main focus. The reader or viewer is provided with the clues to the case, from which the identity of the

perpetrator Perpetrator may refer to: *Someone who committed a crime * Suspect of committing a crime * Perpetrators, victims, and bystanders, a typology in genocide studies * Perpetrator studies, the academic study of perpetrators of political violence {{ ...

may be deduced before the story provides the revelation itself at its

climax Climax may refer to: Language arts * Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work * Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance Biology * Climax community, a biological community t ...

. The investigation is usually conducted by an eccentric, amateur, or semi-professional

detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...

Concept

A whodunit follows the paradigm of the classical detective story in the sense that it presents crime as a puzzle to be solved through a chain of questions that the detective poses. In a whodunit, however, the audience is given the opportunity to engage in the same process of deduction as the protagonist throughout the investigation of a crime. This engages the readers so that they strive to compete with or outguess the expert investigator. A defining feature of the whodunit narrative is the so-called double narrative. Here, one narrative is hidden and gradually revealed while the other is the open narrative, which often transpires in the present time of the story. This feature has been associated with the Russian literary terms ''syuzhet'' and fabula. The former involves the narrative presented to the reader by the author or the actual story as it happened in chronological order while the latter focuses on the underlying substance or material of the narrative. The double narrative has a deep structure but is specific, particularly when it comes to time and a split gaze on the narrative itself. The two tales coexist and interweave with the first tale focusing on the crime itself, what led to it, and the investigation to solve it while the second story is all about the reconstruction of the crime. Here, the '' diegesis'' or the way the characters live on the inquiry level creates the phantom narration where the objects, bodies, and words become signs for both the detective and the reader to interpret and draw their conclusions from. For instance, in a detective novel, solving a mystery entails the reconstruction of the criminal events. This process, however, also involves on the part of the detective the production of a hypothesis that could withstand scrutiny, including the crafting of findings about cause and motive as well as crime and its intended consequences. This discourse of explanation constitutes the second narrative besides the primary story relating to the crime. The double narrative is cited as a main distinguishing element between the whodunit and the thriller. The whodunit goes backward as it goes forward, reconstructing the timeline of both crime and investigation, the thriller coincides with the action in a single story. According to Tzvetan Todorov, in terms of temporal logic, the whodunit narrative is considered a paradigm for fiction in general because the story unfolds in relation not to a future event but one that is already known and merely lying in wait. Such certainty pertains to the crime and not to the identity of the culprit, who the reader must anticipate as part of the unknown future. This narrative development has been seen as a form of

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

, in which order is restored to a threatened social calm.

History

According to

Merriam-Webster Dictionary ''Webster's Dictionary'' is any of the English language dictionaries edited in the early 19th century by American lexicographer Noah Webster (1758–1843), as well as numerous related or unrelated dictionaries that have adopted the Webster's ...

, the term "WhoDunIt" was coined b
News Of Books
reviewer Donald Gordon in 1930, in his review of the detective novel " Half-Mast Murder" written by

Milward Kennedy Milward Rodon Kennedy Burge (21 June 1894 – 20 January 1968) was an English civil servant, journalist, crime writer and literary critic. He was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford. He served with British Military Intelli ...

. Journalist Wolfe Kaufman claimed that he coined the word "whodunit" around 1935 while working for '' Variety'' magazine. However, an editor of the magazine, Abel Green, attributed it to his predecessor, Sime Silverman. The earliest appearance of the word "whodunit" in ''Variety'' occurs in the edition of August 28, 1934, in reference to a film adaptation of the play '' Recipe for Murder,'' as featured in the headline, "U's Whodunit: Universal is shooting 'Recipe for Murder,' Arnold Ridley's play". The film was eventually titled ''Blind Justice''. The "whodunit" flourished during the so-called "

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the G ...

" of detective fiction, between the First and Second World Wars, when it was the predominant mode of crime writing. Many of the best-known writers of whodunits in this period were British — notably

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fiction ...

Nicholas Blake Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis; 27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972), often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Irish-born British poet and Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Bla ...

, G. K. Chesterton,

Christianna Brand Mary Christianna Lewis (née Milne; 17 December 1907 – 11 March 1988), known professionally as Christianna Brand, was a British crime writer and children's author born in British Malaya. Biography Christianna Brand was born Mary Christi ...

, Edmund Crispin,

Michael Innes John Innes Mackintosh Stewart (30 September 1906 – 12 November 1994) was a Scottish novelist and academic. He is equally well known for the works of literary criticism and contemporary novels published under his real name and for the cri ...

, Dorothy L. Sayers,

Gladys Mitchell Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell (21 April 1901 – 27 July 1983) was an English writer best known for her creation of Mrs Bradley, the heroine of 66 detective novels. She also wrote under the pseudonyms Stephen Hockaby and Malcolm Torrie. Fêt ...

and

Josephine Tey Josephine Tey was a pseudonym used by Elizabeth MacKintosh (25 July 1896 – 13 February 1952), a Scottish author. Her novel '' The Daughter of Time'' was a detective work investigating the role of Richard III of England in the death of the Pr ...

. Others –

S. S. Van Dine S. S. Van Dine (also styled S.S. Van Dine) is the pseudonym used by American art critic Willard Huntington Wright (October 15, 1888 – April 11, 1939) when he wrote detective novels. Wright was active in avant-garde cultural circles in pre- Wor ...

, John Dickson Carr and

Ellery Queen Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1929 by American crime fiction writers Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee and the name of their main fictional character, a mystery writer in New York City who helps his police inspector father solve ...

— were American, but imitated the "British" style. Still others, such as Rex Stout,

Clayton Rawson Clayton Rawson (August 15, 1906 – March 1, 1971) was an American mystery writer, editor, and amateur magician. His four novels frequently invoke his great knowledge of stage magic and feature as their fictional detective The Great Merlini, a p ...

and Earl Derr Biggers, attempted a more "American" style. During the Golden Age, the genre was dominated by female authors. In addition to Christie, Brand, Sayers, Mitchell, and Tey, major writers also included Margery Allingham and

Ngaio Marsh Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh (; 23 April 1895 – 18 February 1982) was a New Zealand mystery writer and theatre director. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966. As a crime writer during the " Golden Age of De ...

. Over time, certain conventions and clichés developed which limited surprise on the part of the reader – vis-à-vis details of the plot – the identity of the murderer. Several authors excelled, after successfully misleading their readers, in revealing an unlikely suspect as the real villain of the story. They often had a predilection for certain casts of characters and settings, with the secluded

English country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

at the top of the list. One reaction to the conventionality of British murder mysteries was American "

hard-boiled Hardboiled (or hard-boiled) fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction (especially detective fiction and noir fiction). The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence ...

" crime fiction, epitomized by the writings of

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...

and Mickey Spillane, among others. Though the settings were grittier, the violence more abundant and the style more colloquial, plots were, as often as not, whodunits constructed in much the same way as the " cozier" British mysteries.

Games

The 1935 commercial parlour game '' Jury Box'' sees the players cast as

jurors A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartial verdict (a finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Juries developed in England duri ...

who are given the scenario of the murder, the evidence presented by the prosecutor and defendant, two photographs of the crime scene and ballot papers. Players are challenged to make the decision as to who is guilty, before a real solution is read out. The 1948 board game '' Cluedo'', released as ''Clue'' in North America, was the first murder mystery board game, and sees players as visitors in a mansion, attempting to identify a killer whose identity is recorded on a hidden card. A murder mystery game is a form of live-action "whodunit" experience, where guests at a private party are given notes to perform the roles of the suspects, detective and murderer over the course of an evening. There are a number of murder mystery

dinner theater Dinner theater (sometimes called dinner and a show) is a form of entertainment that combines a restaurant meal with a staged play or musical. "Dinner and a show" can also refer to a restaurant meal in combination with live concert music, where pat ...

s, where either professional or community theatre performers take on those roles, and present the

murder mystery Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

to an audience, usually in conjunction with a meal. Typically before or immediately following the final course, the audience is given a chance to offer their help in solving the mystery.

Howdunnit

An important variation on the whodunit is the

inverted detective story An inverted detective story, also known as a "howcatchem", is a murder mystery fiction structure in which the commission of the crime is shown or described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator. The story then describ ...

(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 ''Columbo'' () is an American crime drama television series starring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. After two pilot episodes in 1968 and 1971, the show originally aired on NBC fr ...

'' TV movie series is the classic example of this kind of detective story ('' Law & Order: Criminal Intent'' and ''

The Streets of San Francisco ''The Streets of San Francisco'' is a television crime drama filmed on location in San Francisco and produced by Quinn Martin Productions, with the first season produced in association with Warner Bros. Television (QM produced the show on its ...

'' 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

Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

movie '' Suspicion''. Successors of the psychological suspense novel include

Patricia Highsmith Patricia Highsmith (January 19, 1921 – February 4, 1995) was an American novelist and short story writer widely known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley. She wrote 22 nove ...

's '' This Sweet Sickness'' (1960), Simon Brett's '' A Shock to the System'' (1984), and Stephen Dobyns's '' The Church of Dead Girls'' (1997).

Parody and spoof

In addition to standard humor,

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...

, spoof, and

pastiche A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking i ...

have had a long tradition within the field of crime fiction. Examples of pastiche are the

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

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 Conan Doyle published his first stories. Similarly, there have been innumerable

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'' (1914) by

E. C. Bentley Edmund Clerihew Bentley (10 July 1875 – 30 March 1956), who generally published under the names E. C. Bentley or E. Clerihew Bentley, was a popular English novelist and humorist, and inventor of the clerihew, an irregular form of humorous verse ...

(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: :' ..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 Lawrence Block (born June 24, 1938) is an American crime writer best known for two long-running New York-set series about the recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and the gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. Block was named a Grand Mast ...

'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 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 sidekicks. In the 1976 film,

Sam Spade Sam Spade is a fictional character and the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel '' The Maltese Falcon''. Spade also appeared in four lesser-known short stories by Hammett. ''The Maltese Falcon'', first published as a serial in the pulp ...

(from '' The Maltese Falcon'') becomes Sam Diamond, Hercule Poirot becomes Milo Perrier, and so on. The characters are all gathered in a large country house and given clues to solve the mystery.

Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and polit ...

's ''

The Real Inspector Hound ''The Real Inspector Hound'' is a short, one-act play by Tom Stoppard. The plot follows two theatre critics named Moon and Birdboot who are watching a ludicrous setup of a country house murder mystery, in the style of a whodunit. By chance, th ...

'' 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 Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

investigators to describe a case in which the identity of the killer is not quickly apparent. Since most homicides are committed by people with whom the victim is acquainted or related, a whodunit case is usually more difficult to solve.

References

{{Crime fiction Crime fiction Detective fiction Puzzles Whodunit