History Literature / Clue

** In book #6, chapter 2 ("A Dynamite Dinner") everyone tries to snuff out the fuse of the bomb threatening to destroy Boddy's mansion rather than just fleeing to save themselves.

* GenderNeutralWriting: The stories sometimes do this when describing a guilty guest's actions to avoid immediately eliminating half the suspects.

** In book #14, chapter 5 ("Window Pain"), Boddy threatens to never invite the guests back unless they help Mrs. White do one of her chores by helping wash the windows. In the solution, [[spoiler: he adds to this by suggesting they tackle the upstairs windows next. Instead, they tackle him.]]

* EatingContest: Book #10, chapter 7 ("Pie In Your Eye"), revolves around Mr. Boddy holding his annual pie-eating contest on National Pie Day (though the date given, May 5, is wrong -- the actual date is January 23), which Miss Scarlet is noted as having won the previous year with twelve pieces. [[spoiler: She wins again this year with ten when the contest is called off early because of the guests' bad behavior.]]

* EmbarrassingPassword: [[spoiler: After the events of book #11, chapter 2 ("Boddy's Byte"), in which one of the guests is caught having stolen a rare coin from Boddy, their room-access password is changed to THIEF.]]

* ImpairmentShot: [[spoiler: Saves a few guests' lives in book #8, chapter 4 ("Your Chocolate or Your Life"), when one suspect shoots two others, grabs a diamond from one and runs off. It turns out they'd been hit so hard earlier that they were seeing double and, with their vision being so blurry, couldn't have hit the broadside of a barn. They also grabbed the false double image of the diamond and ran off with a fistful of air.]]

** Book #3, chapter 2 ("Cut Down to Size"), has Mustard get stabbed with a Knife [[spoiler: while the culprit tried to cut an article out of his newspaper. Unfortunately, they accidentally missed the paper and got the Colonel instead; luckily a doctor was called and arrived in time to save him]].

* PlotAllergy: Comes into play in book #9, chapter 9 ("Mystery in the Moonlight"), in which the six guests identify their allergies, and the three men's prove to be key to solving the mystery. [[spoiler: Mrs. Peacock shuts herself up in her room so she won't see the full moon, claiming to be allergic to it; Mrs. White claims to be allergic to dust (which Boddy doesn't believe, assuming she's just trying to get out of dusting a room like he asked her), and Miss Scarlet says she's allergic to mold. Of the men, Mr. Green is allergic to chalk dust, Colonel Mustard to flowers, and Professor Plum to feathers, which gives him away as the culprit -- he starts having a sneezing fit brought on by trying to rob Miss Scarlet, who was wearing a feather boa.]]

** Used in book #8, chapter 10 ("The Clue in the Shadows"), when the guests and Boddy are playing a round of "Anagrams" (a tile-based word game). When Boddy's attacked for the prize, he spells out the names of the room he's in and the weapon that killed him. [[spoiler: And then two more words -- unscrambled, they read "APRIL FOOLS", revealing he's not really dead.]]

* SuspectIsHatless: Non-crime version in book #9, chapter 1 ("On the Scent"), in which Professor Plum is trying to find a book in the library... but all he can remember is the shape; the title and author's name escape him.

** [[spoiler:In book #1, chapter 2 ("Who Stole Miss Scarlet's Diamonds?"), Mrs. White successfully steals Miss Scarlet's diamond necklace. However, in order to avoid suspicion, she can never sell or even wear them, and must continue as Mr. Boddy's bitter maid.]]
** [[spoiler:In book #2, chapter 9 ("The Wrong Briefcase"), Professor Plum accidentally takes a briefcase with a million dollars in it from another bank customer, and the other guests promptly try to steal it. However, the solution reveals that it was only play money from a board game.]]
** [[spoiler:In book #4, chapter 5 ("The Hobby Club"), Mrs. Peacock shows the other guests her rare and priceless penny, and later hides a decoy (a regular penny taken from Colonel Mustard) in a spot in the Ball Room before going to the middle of the room to practice standing on her head. Mustard, one of the four guests who sneaks in to try and steal the priceless penny, is the one to find the hiding place and walk away with the decoy, unknowingly reclaiming his own property rather than taking Peacock's valuable one.]]
** [[spoiler:In book #5, chapter 5 ("The Walls Have Eyes"), Professor Plum breaks into Mr. Boddy's safe to steal some silver coins. Unfortunately, he forgot they were his ''own'' silver coins, stored there for safekeeping. Also as a result, nobody can blackmail anyone over the theft like they planned.]]
** [[spoiler:In book #5, chapter 6 ("The Guest Who Stole Christmas"), Boddy tells everyone he spent a million dollars for the holiday. The guests assume he meant the presents and try to steal them, with one succeeding. Then it turns out he actually spent that money on the Christmas tree ornaments; the gifts are all tiny party favors and worth only pennies.]]
** [[spoiler:In book #6, chapter 3 ("The Scarlet Key"), Mr. Boddy's bought a million-dollar [[Creator/VincentVanGogh Vinnie Van Go-Go]] sculpture that he puts on display on the left side of the Hall. Later, Mrs. Peacock sneaks into the mansion to steal what she thinks is the sculpture. She doesn't know that earlier Professor Plum had said that a Vinnie Van Go-Go sculpture belongs on the right side of the room, and that Mr. Boddy had moved it there. She ended up stealing Mr. Boddy's coat stand, the item he'd moved to the left side of the room to make space for the sculpture.]]
** [[spoiler:In book #6, chapter 4 ("Password, Please"), Boddy has gained access to online banking, including transferring money from one account to another. One of the guests figures out his password and commands the system to transfer all of Boddy's money into the thief's own account, but there's a catch in the system -- "The maximum allowable transfer is one dollar per day".]]
** [[spoiler:In book #7, chapter 1 ("Be My Ghost"), Professor Plum ends up the guest who meets the ghost of Mr. Boddy's ancestor. The ghost tells him exactly where the hidden treasure is, and adds in a bunch of juicy family secrets. Unfortunately, Plum's fear makes him even more forgetful than usual. When the other guests find him in the morning, he's forgotten everything the ghost said and just mumbles about how he saw it.]]
** [[spoiler: In book #13, chapter 2 ("Full of Hot Air"), the guests take part in a hot-air balloon race. The winner is going too fast when they cross the finish line, and has to use the prize money to pay for the rescue squad that pulls them out of the sky.]]
** [[spoiler:In book #14, chapter 6 ("By George"), the guests find out about a rare and valuable stamp that Boddy owns and try to steal it. The final thief is the only one to discover that Boddy had switched stamps while talking to the guests earlier, and the first thief (and everyone after them) had stolen a decoy.]]
** [[spoiler: In book #17, chapter 4 ("Getting Out of Line"), Boddy's acquired a valuable but high-strung show cat and will only allow one person in to see it at a time. Their arguing over who goes first causes him to send them all to their rooms without supper, and then return the cat to its previous owner so none of them ever get to see it.]]
* AlliterativeName: The three male guests (Gerald Green, Martin Mustard and Paul Plum) and one of the women (Wilhelmina White) have these in this continuity, per reveals in book #1 (Green is referred to as "Gerald" more than once, and the rest are given in chapter 9, "Miss Feather's Gossip Column"), as do some minor one-shot characters like Boddy's nephew Bartholomew Benjamin Best-Boddy (featured in book #8, chapter 8 -- "Foul Ball") and cousin Bitsy Boddy, featured in [[spoiler:book #15, chapter 10 -- "The Vanishing Vampire", in which he dressed up as the titular character to prank the guests]]). Averted with Reginald Boddy and Charlotte Scarlet, and possibly Mrs. Peacock, whose first name is never given.

* AmusementParkOfDoom: Subverted in book #7, chapter 9 ("Mr. Boddy's Wild Ride"). Mr. Boddy has installed what seems to be one of these in his Ball Room, but the dangers, which appear to kill five of the six suspects, are in fact all Hollywood special effects, and nobody is actually harmed (in fact, the five who "died" willingly go through the ride a second time afterward and love it). [[spoiler:Except for Mrs. Peacock, who was the last one left in the car (besides Mr. Boddy) the first time around and was so distressed by the incident that she spent the rest of the weekend in bed.]]

* AshFace: [[spoiler:The final thief in book #10, chapter 9 ("The Thanksgiving Murder") has one from building a fire in the fireplace earlier, which identifies them.]]

** In book #7, chapter 3 ("You Gotta Have Art"), the guests take part in a charity auction, bidding on antique versions of the classic weapons -- a Candlestick made by Paul Revere, a Revolver made by Sam Colt, a Knife owned by famed murderess Lucrezia Borgia, and others of the like. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, their checks all bounce, forcing Boddy to repossess the items and auction them off to himself.]]

** In book #14, chapter 7 ("To Top It Off"), the six guests eat four large pizzas with eight pieces each -- a total of 32 pieces, with the mystery being who ate the most. [[spoiler:It's Mrs. White, who ate a full eight slices -- an entire pizza's worth.]]

** Book #5, chapter 5 ("The Walls Have Eyes"), in which a number of guests try to blackmail others over thefts or spying. [[spoiler:It doesn't work out because the original thief was the forgetful Professor Plum, who forgot what was in the safe he'd been cracking and was trying to steal his own property.]]
** Book #6, chapter 1 ("That Gun Rings a Bell"), in which Mrs. Peacock took photos of some of the guests robbing Mr. Boddy and intended to give them to him unless the thieves paid her, and is nearly murdered for it. [[spoiler:The supposed killer satisfies themselves by taking her photos and negatives and destroying them while she's fainted after thinking she's been shot.]]

* BlatantLies: More than once, the guests all make promises they obviously don't intend to keep. This is also a weakness of the Mrs. Peacock clones in book #3, chapter 9 ("Cloning Around"), who have two weaknesses -- they're all crazed killers, and they always lie. [[spoiler:The solution is to ask them any simple factual question, like "What's two plus two?"; no matter how obvious it is, because they can't ''not'' lie, the clones will have to make up some blatantly fake answer and expose themselves.]]

** In book #3, chapter 6 ("A Very Important Poison"), one guest uses Professor Plum's new poison to try and kill some other guests, dipping a set of darts into the jar and then blowing them out at their targets through the Lead Pipe. They hit Mr. Boddy instead. [[spoiler:Thankfully, it turns out Plum had forgotten the truth -- it wasn't poison, like he told the guests, but a sleeping potion. Consequently, Plum -- who'd taken a sip earlier when he was trying to remember what it was -- and Mr. Boddy awaken a few hours later.]]

* BoobyTrap: Naturally featured in book #6, chapter 10 ("Booby-Trapped!"), in which all six guests rig up traps in the Study to kill Boddy over his threatening to go to the cops with the tapes from his security cameras, which caught them all stealing from him. Five of them go off during the story [[spoiler:(the exception being a Candlestick loaded with TNT)]], with four of them being reset for another use afterward.

** In book #18, chapter 3 ("Breakfast Blunders"), Mr. Green suffers this when a jar of pickled tomatoes gets knocked off a shelf and lands on his head. [[spoiler:Mr. Boddy gives him a second lump when he finds Mr. Green tried to steal his valuable clock but dropped and broke it as he was carrying it away.]]

** In book #1, chapter 10 ("Who Was Fiddling Around?"), Mr. Boddy's Stradivarius is stolen by an old woman whom he doesn't remember inviting to the mansion. When the other guests finally catch up to her and confront her over the theft, she takes offense to being called "an old crone" and rips off her mask, revealing herself to be a man in disguise. [[spoiler:The thief turns out to be Colonel Mustard.]]

** Special mention for book #6, chapter 9 ("Mr. Boddy's Surefire System"). Someone attempts to kill [[spoiler:Mr. Green, who is found dead on the floor and clutching a newspaper after being hit with a blunt object. Except it turns out the blunt object was ''the floor itself'' -- he'd just read some bad news about one of his stock options in the paper and fainted. Moments after being found, he revives and demands to call his broker.]]

* EatingContest: Book #10, chapter 7 ("Pie In Your Eye"), revolves around Mr. Boddy holding his annual pie-eating contest on National Pie Day (though the date given, May 5, is wrong -- the actual date is January 23), which Miss Scarlet is noted as having won the previous year with twelve pieces. [[spoiler:She wins again this year with ten when the contest is called off early because of the guests' bad behavior.]]

** [[spoiler: Book #18, chapter 5 ("Say What?"), in which Boddy tells the guests he had obtained some ancient Egyptian flutes, but ''not'' that he'd put out a decoy set, which the last thief ended up with. After this was discovered, everyone had a good laugh at the last thief's expense.]]

* {{Fainting}}: More than a few of the attempted murders result in the "victim" being mistaken for dead, only for it to turn out they'd just fainted from fear or shock. Or a terrible odor. [[spoiler:The latter comes up in book #7, chapter 4 ("Mr. Green's Jeans"), wherein Mr. Green is found face-down in a pile of garbage, having supposedly been hit from behind. In fact, he'd fainted from the smell of the trash. Likewise, in book #18, chapter 2 ("Animal Crack-ups"), the guests are trying to steal Mr. Boddy's new miniature animals, only for all but the last thief to pass out from the terrible stench -- the mini-animals are ten times smellier than their normal-sized counterparts. Mr. Boddy, on discovering this fact, has the animals all shipped off to a petting zoo.]]

** In book #3, chapter 6 ("A Very Important Poison"), Plum accidentally poisons himself with his newest creation. Mrs. White and Mr. Green hurry to his lab to try and find a cure. [[spoiler:Thankfully, it turns out the "poison" was actually just a sleeping potion, and he and Boddy (the latter having been accidentally hit with the same "poison" via a dart) wake up a few hours later.]]

* GrowsOnTrees: In book #14, chapter 4 ("The Money Tree"), Mr. Boddy presents his guests with a tree that supposedly grows leaves made of pure gold and silver. [[spoiler:It turns out to be a prank -- the leaves are actually chocolates, covered in cheap foil.]]

* IllFatedFlowerbed: One story opens with Mr. Boddy sitting in his backyard admiring his priceless rose garden. Professor Plum then accidentally drives his Volkswagen through half the roses. Boddy [[StepfordSmiler tries to stay happy, saying he's delighted to have company]], since only half his roses are ruined, but then Plum lets his dog out of the car. The dog promptly tears through the ''other'' half of Boddy's roses.

* InsaneTrollLogic: In book #17, chapter 8 ("The Secret Stairway"), Boddy hired a man named Banister to make him a secret escape route from the mansion. But when Banister finished, he wouldn't tell Boddy, the only one intended to know its location, let alone use it, where it was -- because then it wouldn't be a secret. [[spoiler:To top it off, he let one of the guests watch him build it, thus defeating the whole purpose.]]

* InsuranceFraud: Book #1, chapter 2 ("Who Stole Miss Scarlet's Diamonds?") has Mrs. Peacock suggest that Miss Scarlet is attempting this by faking the theft of her own diamond necklace, since she had the insurance form in her weekend bag. [[spoiler:It's ultimately subverted -- Mrs. White stole them.]]

* KillerRobot: In book #6, chapter 7 ("The Robot Butler"), Mr. Boddy gets a robot butler. One guest uses it to their advantage by ordering it to kill another guest. [[spoiler:Fortunately, Horace's batteries die just before he can deliver the fatal blow, and Boddy returns him to the store the next day.]]

* MetaTwist: In book #4, chapter 7 ("Mystery at the Masked Ball"), the guests are only described by the color of the mask they are wearing. At this point in the series, readers likely interpret this choice as a clue that the guests aren't wearing outfits that match the color of their name, and that the mystery will involve figuring out who is in what color...only for the last few lines to reveal that the guests' disguises actually ''do'' correspond to their names.

** In book #4, chapter 8 ("Farewell, Mrs. Peacock"), she apparently threw out all of Miss Scarlet's makeup because she considers makeup to be vulgar. [[spoiler:Scarlet tries to kill her for it. Luckily, Boddy had taken the bullets out of the Revolver before throwing it out the window, where Scarlet was waiting; when Mrs. Peacock admits she still has the makeup and gives it back, Scarlet gives up her murder attempt.]]

* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: [[spoiler:The three female guests all prove far more effective at their murder attempts than the men. Of the eighteen books, thirteen end with one (or more) of the women "killing" Boddy.]]

** In one story, Mrs. Peacock uses the Wrench to tune the Ball Room piano when it starts playing sour notes.
** In another story, Miss Scarlet dances ballet by the light of the Candlestick.
** In another story, Mrs. White uses the Rope to knock down cobwebs she has a hard time reaching.
** Zigagged in book #10, chapter 5 ("The Snowball Effect"), Boddy orders the guests to hand over all their weapons to ensure fair play in the snowball fight they're about to have; Mrs. Peacock ''claims'' she brought the Candlestick out for its intended purpose (keeping them warm), and Plum is legitimately reluctant to hand over the Rope because he's using it as a belt. (Boddy still makes him give it up, but also sends Mrs. White in to get him a real belt.)

** Book #3, chapter 2 ("Cut Down to Size"), has Mustard get stabbed with a Knife [[spoiler:while the culprit tried to cut an article out of his newspaper. Unfortunately, they accidentally missed the paper and got the Colonel instead; luckily a doctor was called and arrived in time to save him]].
* NotSoAboveItAll: Mr. Boddy is generally presented as a NiceGuy and even an ExtremeDoormat, but sometimes he can be just as conniving as any of his guests. In book #7, chapter 10 ("The Life of the Party is Dead"), he has background checks done on all of the guests to find out their {{Dark Secret}}s as part of a dinner game contest where he'll force them to reveal those secrets. Another story has him openly threatening the guests with the Revolver to show them he means business when he tells them to stay out of one of the mansion's rooms.

** Book #6, chapter 4 ("Password, Please") has Boddy gain access to online banking; the guests immediately try to figure out his password, trying some significant date like his birthday first. [[spoiler:It turns out to be that day's date, to celebrate the first day he got access to his online banking program.]]

** In book #12, chapter 5 ("The Rosy Scarecrow"), several of the guests try to steal Mr. Boddy's blue roses, only for the last one to be stopped by a living scarecrow. [[spoiler:It's Mrs. White in disguise, who convinces Boddy she was indeed trying to protect the roses rather than steal them.]]

** In book #6, chapter 1 ("That Gun Rings A Bell"), Mrs. Peacock tries to blackmail Mr. Green and Mrs. White with her photo evidence of them robbing Mr. Boddy blind. It seems like one of them kills her, but [[spoiler:she actually fainted from the shock of Boddy's new gimmick doorbell, which makes a gunshot sound when it's pushed. Instead of killing Mrs. Peacock, Mr. Green simply steals and then destroys her blackmail material.]]
** In Book #7, chapter 10 ("The Life of the Party is Dead"), one of the guests tries to kill Mr. Boddy to keep him from revealing any of their {{Dark Secret}}s. Their attempt simply gives Boddy LaserGuidedAmnesia and makes him forget all of the secrets and his efforts to reveal them. He spends the rest of the evening telling bad jokes, and the guests indulge him because they got what they wanted.

** In book #2, chapter 9 ("The Wrong Briefcase"), Professor Plum finds he accidentally did this -- he stopped at the bank earlier that day, but left his briefcase by mistake. When he went back, he found an identical one next to another person in line and took it, thinking it was his own, but didn't discover this until he tries to find his lecture notes and discovers it's actually a BriefcaseFullOfMoney. [[spoiler:Which turns out to be play money from a board game.]]

* ScaryScarecrows: In book #12, chapter 5 ("The Rosy Scarecrow"), several of the guests try to steal Mr. Boddy's blue roses. The last pair to make the attempt are stopped by a living scarecrow and run screaming back to the mansion. [[spoiler:It's really Mrs. White in disguise, taking steps to protect the valuable roses.]]

** Used in book #8, chapter 10 ("The Clue in the Shadows"), when the guests and Boddy are playing a round of "Anagrams" (a tile-based word game). When Boddy's attacked for the prize, he spells out the names of the room he's in and the weapon that killed him. [[spoiler:And then two more words -- unscrambled, they read "APRIL FOOLS", revealing he's not really dead.]]

* {{Sleepwalking}}: Book #1, chapter 8 ("The Sleepwalking Killer") features... a sleepwalking killer. [[spoiler:Fortunately, as always, the victim wasn't dead -- they'd just fainted from fear, and the "blood" around them was from the glass of fruit juice that was ''actually'' hit by the bullet.]]
* SlidingScaleOfLivingToys: [[spoiler: Book #16, chapter 2 ("The Million-Dollar Dolly") features what ''might'' be alive. The titular doll, as revealed in the solution, can talk and is a tattletale (which Boddy knew, but deliberately kept from the guests); she tells Boddy that all six guests tried to steal her over the course of the chapter, and he puts them all to work making doll clothes as a result.]]

* StuffBlowingUp: ''Something'' exploded when Mrs. White was cooking dinner in book #6, chapter 2 ("A Dynamite Dinner"), with the guests hearing a loud blast from the Kitchen. It's luckily averted with the huge bomb that was planted elsewhere in the mansion. Also with the TimeBomb featured in book #1, chapter 3 ("Happy Birthday, Mr. Green"), [[spoiler:which, as it turns out, the giver forgot to set]].

* TimeBomb: Professor Plum intends to give one to Mr. Green as a birthday present in book #1, chapter 3 ("Happy Birthday, Mr. Green"), revealing that it's due to go off in just a few minutes... but he can't remember where he left it; when asked why he thought it was a good idea, he claims that he thought it would liven up the party and that he planned to turn it off once it was unwrapped. [[spoiler:Luckily, the others figure out where he left it in time. Even more luckily, he also forgot to set it before he wrapped it.]]

** Book #11, chapter 3 ("Creature Features") has the guests eating popcorn and watching monster movies. Mr. Boddy's gold pocket watch falls into one of the bowls, and after getting switched around a few times, ends up in the bowl of a guest who doesn't notice its presence and, consequently, bites into it. As a result, [[spoiler:Mr. Green]] has to buy Boddy a new watch and [[spoiler:himself]] a bridge of false teeth.

* VampiresHateGarlic: Book #15, chapter 10 ("The Vanishing Vampire") has Boddy reveal he owns a painting of a vampire's coffin, which must be kept well-lit at all times. If it isn't, the vampire will escape the painting and attack anyone they find. The final thief, firmly believing this, wears a bulb of garlic around their neck for protection in reference to this trope. [[spoiler:Subverted when the "vampire" turns out to be Boddy's eccentric cousin Bittsy Boddy in costume, who just snatches the garlic away and says "Great! I can use this to make a pizza." before "attacking" the would-be thief.]]

** In book #10, chapter 6 ("The Case is All Sewed Up"), Boddy shows the guests an old quilt once owned by his great-great-grandmother, who hid the family's "most valuable possessions" in it for protection during World War I, in case the family home was invaded by enemy soldiers. The guests assume it's something valuable. The solution reveals that it's actually this trope -- the "treasure" is [[spoiler:a packet of old family photos]].
* WoundedGazelleGambit: Book #10, chapter 8 ("Pea Is For Pretender") involves Miss Scarlet talking about how her favorite fairy tale is "Literature/ThePrincessAndThePea", in which a woman [[WomenAreDelicate is so delicate]] she can feel a single tiny pea through an entire stack of mattresses and it's considered proof that she's a princess. Scarlet decides to put this to the test, and naturally plans to cheat (via painting a fake bruise on her leg) so she can get the diamond tiara Boddy promised her if it turned out she was a real princess. [[spoiler:Professor Plum catches her at it and exposes her as a phony in time.]]

*** Book #4, chapter 3 ("A Tug-of-War"), featuring a tug-of-war competition in which each member of the winning team would receive a rare Boddy treasure ([[spoiler:a big kiss on the nose from Mr. Boddy]]);
*** Book #10, chapter 4 ("The Halloween Costume Caper"), featuring a game of bobbing for apples in which one of the apples contains a golden nugget ([[spoiler:actually a nugget of caramel candy, though in that case everyone had a good laugh when it was revealed]]);
*** Book #10, chapter 5 ("The Snowball Effect"), featuring a snowball fight ([[spoiler:in which the winning team got ice cream cones]]);
*** Book #15, chapter 5 ("Door Prize"), featuring a competition to paint the most doors in the mansion's downstairs ([[spoiler:everyone got a prize -- bars of soap to clean the paint off their hands]]);
*** And book #16, chapter 8 ("A Little Horse"), featuring a horse race where ([[spoiler:everyone's "prize" was being forced to muck out the stalls, since Boddy had gotten angry with them for fighting over who was the best rider and demanding a race to prove who ''was'' best]]).
*** Played with in book #12, chapter 3 ("Tennis, Anyone?"), which featured a lottery drawing with a half real, half zonk prize; while the guests weren't too happy about playing for the zonk (a chance to see Mr. Boddy compete in a tennis tournament being held at some point later on), they ''did'' want to win the money he was also putting up. [[spoiler:After Boddy lost badly in the tournament, the winning guest graciously gave him some of the prize money to spend on private lessons.]]

*** [[spoiler: Book #5, chapter 2 ("Midnight Phone Calls") has two guests overhearing Miss Scarlet making a call to have a batch of rubies delivered to the mansion. It turns out they aren't ''literal'' rubies -- they're her favorite brand of jelly beans.]]
*** [[spoiler:Book #6, chapter 6 ("Caught Blue-Handed") has the case of the priceless records -- they're literally priceless, in that they're not worth a dime.]]
*** [[spoiler: Book #15, chapter 4 ("Ham It Up") has the guests fighting over a valuable sculpture of a set of teeth. It turns out to be Boddy's grandfather's old false teeth with a fake signature on it, which he set up to trick the guests into dressing up for a food-themed costume party.]]
*** [[spoiler:Book #17, chapter 3 ("A Flying Saucer Story"), with the theft of the Ersatz Diamond, being sold to Boddy by aliens from the planet [[SdrawkcabName Xaoh]]. Naturally, given the names involved, the diamond is a fake -- Boddy was deliberately trolling his guests as a prank.]]
*** Book #17, chapter 5 ("Truth Serum"), has the culprit break into a large, mysterious crate that's sitting out on the lawn; Boddy's refused to identify the contents, so the guests are sure it's a new treasure. [[spoiler:It turns out to be a new bathtub he was having installed.]]

* BerserkButton: Mrs. Peacock gets infuriated over anything she finds even the slightest bit rude, and her responses can be pretty extreme -- for instance, it's mentioned in the introduction to book #5 that if someone burps in her presence, she calls the police.

* [[spoiler:In book #6, chapter 3 ("The Scarlet Key"), Mr. Boddy's bought a million-dollar [[Creator/VincentVanGogh Vinnie Van Go-Go]] sculpture that he puts on display on the left side of the Hall. Later, Mrs. Peacock sneaks into the mansion to steal what she thinks is the sculpture. She doesn't know that earlier Professor Plum had said that a Vinnie Van Go-Go sculpture belongs on the right side of the room, and that Mr. Boddy had moved it there. She ended up stealing Mr. Boddy's coat stand, the item he'd moved to the left side of the room to make space for the sculpture.]]

* CatchPhrase

* ChalkOutline: Mr. Boddy's supposedly dead form is outlined in the last chapter of the very first book (and it's shown in the cover illustration too). The victim in book #6, chapter 5 ("Tall Tales"), is also outlined, along with the Wrench found near them. In both cases, neither victim is actually dead -- Boddy was just unconscious, and book #6's victim turned out to have been deep in thought and mistaken for dead. (In the latter case, examining a detail of the outline allows two of the guests, who weren't at the mansion at the time, to figure out who the victim was.)

* MundaneUtility: Sometimes the weapons are used for non-weapon purposes. For instance, in book #10, chapter 5 ("The Snowball Effect"), Boddy orders the guests to hand over all their weapons to ensure fair play in the snowball fight they're about to have; Mrs. Peacock ''claims'' she brought the Candlestick out for its intended purpose (keeping them warm), and Plum is legitimately reluctant to hand over the Rope because he's using it as a belt. (Boddy still makes him give it up, but also sends Mrs. White in to get him a real belt.)

* WhipItGood: Seen in book #5, chapter 10 ("Mr. Boddy's Funeral") when Mr. Green and Colonel Mustard start fighting at the titular funeral. Green, wielding the Rope like a whip, accidentally cuts the peacock feather in Mrs. Peacock's hat in half in the process.

** Book #7, chapter 3 ("You Gotta Have Art"), before displaying a Candlestick made by Paul Revere, Boddy dons a tricornered hat, to the amusement of the guests.

* GoldTooth: Book #7, chapter 5 ("Mrs. Peacock Bites the Bullet"), reveals that Mrs. Peacock has one, and it falls out when she bites into a bullet that had fallen into the cream puff she was eating.

* WhatAnIdiot: InUniverse in book #4, chapter 7 ("The Mystery at the Masked Ball"). The guests are all wearing masks in their own usual colors for the dance, yet Mr. Boddy says that with those masks on, he can't tell who they all are. Mrs. White even quietly says "What a fool!" in response to his comment before noting the color fact to herself.

* TheTell: The guest all have at least one, to make it easy to identify them in passages where their names are withheld from the reader. Some are more obvious than others, relying more on the reader intuiting from what they know of their backgrounds and personalities than noticing a {{Catchphrase}}.

* RichIdiotWithNoDayJob: Mr. Boddy has his moments, and he doesn't seem to have much hands-on involvement in whatever sources of income he has.
** While Miss Scarlet did once invent a brand of lipstick in the past, book #9, chapter 7 ("There Went the Bride") implies that she qualifies for this trope after she asks the other other guests to guess some good news she has.
--> '''Colonel Mustard:''' I know. You've taken a job. You're actually going to work for a living.
--> '''Miss Scarlet:''' Heavens, no! Why would I ever stoop to that?

** When the guests argue and whine for a horse race, Mr. Boddy gets so fed up that he agrees and even offers a prize. The prize is Boddy's forcing the guests to muck out the stalls.
** When Miss Scarlet accidentally breaks Mr. Boddy's priceless chandelier while trying to steal it, she's forced to take over washing dishes from Mrs. White to pay Boddy back.
** When Professor Plum accidentally melts Mr. Boddy's wax statue to steal the jewels embedded in it, Mr. Boddy forces him to help the wax-maker craft a new one.
** When Miss Scarlet fakes being married to trick the other guests into buying her expensive wedding gifts, she's forced to serve the other guests and clean up after them at the ensuing party. This is particularly fitting given how snobbishly she treated Mrs. White earlier in the story.
** When Mrs. Peacock tries to steal Mr. Boddy's valuable diamond-encrusted clock, she's forced to dust the rest of Mr. Boddy's clock collection until the ticking nearly drives her crazy.

** One story has Professor Plum steal Mr. Green's brand-new cufflinks. The solution then reveals that Plum would have gotten away with his crime, except that he forgot how he acquired the the cufflinks and wore them to Boddy's next party.

* Fiction500: PlayedForLaughs with Mr. Boddy, who's so rich as to be ridiculous. In one story, he casually pulls a cool million dollars out of his pockets and calls it "petty cash." Many of the mysteries have him acquiring some kind of impossibly rare and expensive treasure, while others have him spending untold amounts of money on random entertainments and surprises just for the fun of it.

* FunWithAcronyms: In one story, the guests find some locked trunks in Mr. Boddy's attic. They think the trunks are full of riches, but the keys are long gone. Professor Plum offers up the use of his lockpicks, which he says are endorsed by S.T.E.A.L., the "'''S'''ociety of '''T'''hieves, '''E'''mbezzlers '''A'''nd '''L'''ockpickers." The other guests stare blankly back at Plum, and he explains he's always locking himself out of his lab or car and got sick of having to call a locksmith.

* NakedPeopleAreFunny: One story starts with Professor Plum and Miss Scarlet lounging beside Mr. Boddy's pool. Miss Scarlet is wearing a red bikini and sunglasses, which fortunately keep her from seeing that Plum forgot to put on his swim trunks. Plum quickly goes back inside to get his trunks, and when he comes back Miss Scarlet never even noticed he'd left.

* NotSoAboveItAll: Mr. Boddy is generally presented as a NiceGuy and even an ExtremeDoormat, but sometimes he can be just as conniving as any of his guests. In one story, he has background checks done on all of the guests to find out their {{Dark Secret}}s as part of a dinner game contest where he'll force them to reveal those secrets. Another story has him openly threatening the guests with the Revolver to show them he means business when he tells them to stay out of one of the mansion's rooms.

** One story had a police detective named "Rhett Herring" and another featured Mr. Boddy's neighbor "Mr. Beau Legg."

** In book #1, chapter 1 (“Who Killed Pitty Patty?”), Colonel Mustard challenges Mr. Green to a duel for threatening Ms. Scarlet.** Book #1, chapter 3 ("Happy Birthday Mr. Green") has the other guests seem unusually sincere when they throw Mr. Green a birthday party, and he is uncharacteristically grateful.

** Book #1, chapter 3 ("Happy Birthday Mr. Green") has the other guests seem unusually sincere when they throw Mr. Green a birthday party, and he is uncharacteristically grateful.

** In book #7, chapter 10 ("The Life Of The Party Is Dead"), Mr. Boddy forces his guests to reveal dark secrets about themselves, and threatens to reveal the ''really'' dark secrets about themselves if they don't. Given how many crimes they've already shown themselves capable of committing, Boddy [[TooDumbToLive never stops to consider whether the guests might be willing to kill him to keep their secrets.]]

* PragmaticVillainy: In book #6, chapter 1 ("That Gun Rings A Bell"), Mrs. Peacock tries to blackmail Mr. Green and Mrs. White with her photo evidence of them robbing Mr. Boddy blind. It seems like one of them kills her, but [[spoiler:she actually fainted from the shock of Boddy's new gimmick doorbell, which makes a gunshot sound when it's pushed. Instead of killing Mrs. Peacock, Mr. Green simply steals and then destroys her blackmail material.]]