History Main / BeneathSuspicion

* In J.K Rowling's The Cuckoo's Calling The murderer turns out to be [[spoiler: the brother of the first victim, who was the one who initially hired the detective after the police ruled the death a suicide, and is for most of the book the only one convinced her death was murder]]

--> '''Sherlock:''' This is his hunting ground. Right here, in the heart of the city. Now that we know that his victims were abducted, that changes everything. 'Cause all of his victims dissapeared from buisy streets, crowded places, but nobody saw them go. ''Think!'' Who do we trust, even though we don't know them? Who passes, unnoticed, wherever they go? Who hunts in the middle of a crowd?

* The American version, {{Elementary}}, pulled a similar trick in one episode - a COO of a major firm is found dead, Sherlock discovers a rash of similar murders in the company spanning several years, and the only executive who can be clearly linked to all the murders alibis out. Sherlock doesn't think until much later to check out that executive's ''secretary'', about which he points out when he does think of it, "no one ''ever'' remembers the secretary, do they?"

* ''ScoobyDoo'' plays this trope straight constantly during its early incarnations, although they begin [[PlayingWithATrope playing with it]] in later series and spinoffs. In the original series, the one character the gang briefly meets early on in each episode disappears and is never seen again... [[YouMeddlingKids Until the monster is captured.]] He usually tries to make himself extremely helpful during the brief time he's seen, which is another hint.

A character who is clearly linked with all the victims of a crime spree is inexplicably not even regarded as a suspect by the detectives until halfway through the final act.

* Similarly in ''Film/MurderByDeath'' (1976), several candidates are nominated for murderer, and the big reveal at the end? [[spoiler:[[TheEndingChangesEverything The twist]] was that there was no murder at all (except maybe of a weekend)...[[note]][[TheUnreveal And one more]] just before the credits roll...[[/note]]]]

* Similarly in ''Film/MurderByDeath'' (1976), several candidates are nominated for murderer, and the big reveal at the end? [[spoiler:[[TheEndingChangesEverything The twist]] was that there was no murder at all (except maybe of a weekend)...[[note]][[TheUnreveal And one more]] just before the credits roll...[[/note]][/spoiler]

* In J.K Rowling's ''{{The Cuckoo's Calling}}'' The murderer turns out to be [[spoiler: the brother of the first victim, who was the one who initially hired the detective after the police ruled the death a suicide, and is for most of the book the only one convinced her death was murder]]

* When it becomes clear that there's a traitor to the White Council in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', everyone's prime suspects include people like TheCaptain of the Wardens, members of the Senior Council, or Dresden himself. Until ''Literature/TurnCoat'', nobody suspects that the traitor is [[spoiler:the Senior Council's ''secretary'']] who, while not an officially high position, does have access to all the information the ranking officers do.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': "Something Wicked", the MonsterOfTheWeek in a small town is none other than the doctor who is treating the patients (children who have had the energy sucked out of them by said monster).

* ''ArsenicAndOldLace'': Who would ever suspect two nice old ladies?

** Also used in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban''. You can't get much more BeneathSuspicion than [[spoiler: someone's pet rat]].

* At the ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesBewareTheGrayGhost Beware the Gray Ghost]]'' the HiddenVillain MadBomber is [[spoiler: [[ChekhovsGunman The young toy collector that bought Simon Trent Gray Ghost memorabilia earlier in the episode.]] ]] When Simon Trent had his EurekaMoment, he cannot believe it:
--> '''Simon Trent''': ''But I'm not the Mad Bomber, Batman. I'm not. I sold my Gray Ghost cars months ago to pay for my...'' '''[[BeneathSuspicion No, it can't be him.]]'''

** [[{{Deconstruction}} Deconstructed]] [[PlayingWithATrope or something]] in ''[[Literature/{{HarryPotterAndTheHalf-BloodPrince}} Half-Blood Prince]]'', when Harry's spying on [[spoiler:Draco Malfoy]] has him convinced that [[spoiler:Malfoy]] is a Death Eater and responsible for lots of the life-threatening mischief at Hogwarts that year. Everyone he talks to finds this [[EpilepticTrees very far-fetched]], because [[spoiler:Malfoy's]] just a teenage student and not even a particularly competent one. Of course, [[spoiler:he turns out to be right.]]

* Lots and Lots of Creator/AgathaChristie novels. The most notable example would probably be [[spoiler: ''Crooked House'']], in which the murderer is a psychopathic child which no one in the book, nor the reader for that matter, would have ever suspected. Caused quite a stir in its time, too.\\
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It gets to the point that the character(s) that have absolutely rock-solid alibis are often the ones responsible. Examples include ''Lord Edgware Dies'' (she was at a party with friends), ''DeathOnTheNile'' (one had been shot in the leg, the other with a nurse looking over her) and ''Murder in Mesopotamia'' (he was on the roof while the victim was downstairs).

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** [[spoiler:Professor Quirrell]] in ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone''. [[spoiler:Ginny Weasley]] in ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''. [[{{Deconstruction}} Deconstructed]] [[PlayingWithATrope or something]] in ''[[HarryPotter/{{HarryPotterAndTheHalf-BloodPrince}} Half-Blood Prince]]'', when Harry's spying on [[spoiler:Draco Malfoy]] has him convinced that [[spoiler:Malfoy]] is a Death Eater and responsible for lots of the life-threatening mischief at Hogwarts that year. Everyone he talks to finds this [[EpilepticTrees very far-fetched]], because [[spoiler:Malfoy's]] just a teenage student and not even a particularly competent one. Of course, [[spoiler:he turns out to be right.]]
*** It's also played straight in the same book. Harry never once suspects the correct person of being the Half-Blood Prince and has to be told who it is. [[spoiler:this is despite his habit of suspecting Snape of anything and also the (once common) tradition in British schools of school teachers keeping their favourite text book in the book cupboard and it only ending up in the hands of pupils if they're desperate (precisely because of how moth-eaten and scrawled over these books often were). Apparently Ron and Harry were familiar enough with their own education system to fight over who didn't get the old book [[IdiotPlot but weren't familiar enough to associate that book with being the teacher's.]] As a result, the one time Snape should have legitimately been one of Harry's (or at least Hermione's) ''first'' suspects was the one time he inexplicably wasn't suspected at all.]]
*** On the other hand, [[spoiler:Slughorn ''had'' taken over for Snape as potions master that year, so they only had Slughorn to relate it to.]]
** Also used in ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban''. You can't get much more BeneathSuspicion than [[spoiler: someone's pet rat]].
** Animagi seem to like using this reasoning, especially unregistered ones. In ''[[HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone Philosopher's Stone]]'', Professor [[=McGonagall=]] spends all day spying on the Dursleys in the form of a cat. Later on, various other animagi try using the same reasoning with varying degrees of success such as Sirius trying to get away with using his dog-form [[spoiler:and Rita Skeeter obtaining her stories by turning into a bug.]]