History Main / DetectivePatsy

* In the ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' episode "The Visions of Norman P. Horowitz", Sherlock is contacted by Horowitz's brother, not to investigate his death by accidental overdose, but because before he died he predicted a series of deaths that is coming true, and Sherlock is on the list. Sherlock naturally feels he has to prove Horowitz could not predict the future, and someone killed these people to make it look as if he could. [[spoiler: It was the brother, and the whole point of the exercise was to draw the attention of former Holmes client (and vague associate of Horrowitz) Henry Baskerville, so he'd pay silly money for the rest of Horowitz's "predictions".]]

* PlayedWith in ''Film/KnivesOut'', where private detective Benoit Blanc is anonymously hired to investigate the seeming clear-cut suicide of Harlan Thrombey, so it is not clear who requested his aid, and to what end. [[spoiler:As it turns out, Blanc was indeed hired by Harlan's murderer, Ransom, who tried to disinherit Marta, the nurse, by mislabeling the medication she was giving Harlan. But when Harlan kills himself to protect Marta's alibi, Ransom is forced to hire Benoit in the hopes he will incriminate Marta.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tracer_9.png]]

* ''Series/ColdCase'' had an interesting variation: A professor was accused, but never proven guilty, of the murder of one of his female students. Because of this he was discredited and fired by the university. He went to the team to have them reopen the case, only for them to figure out ''was'' him all along, and this time they gathered enough evidence to arrest and convict him. [[WhatAnIdiot Oops.]]

* In the ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' episode "The Visions of Norman P. Horowitz", Sherlock is contacted by Horowitz's brother, not to investigate his death by accidental overdose, but because before he died he predicted a series of deaths that is coming true, and Sherlock is on the list. Sherlock naturally feels he has to prove Horowitz could not predict the future, and someone killed these people to make it look as if he could. [[spoiler: It was the brother, and the whole point of the exercise was to draw the attention of former Holmes client (and vague associate of Horrowitz} Henry Baskerville, so he'd pay silly money for the rest of Horowitz's "predictions".]]

* In the ''Radio/SherlockHolmesBBCRadio'' radio play "The Case of the Determined Client," the client tampers with a crime scene to make it look as though her father had been murdered outright, rather than starting the fight with the man who killed him. When the police don't even notice her hints, she calls in Sherlock Holmes, who naturally sees not only the evidence she'd left but that she was the one who left it. She ruefully admits that she should have known better.

* In ''Manga/DetectiveConan'', a case that had both Conan and Heiji working together in Osaka had [[spoiler: the detective who was helping them and Kogoro to catch a serial killer... as the killer himself. The victims were the people who caused the death of his father, 25 years ago; he specifically [[ThePlan became a policeman to find them, make them spit the truth out, and then kill them in a way that would both baffle the whole Osaka police corps ''and'' let him blame someone else for it]].]]

* It has happened to Literature/HerculePoirot, in [[spoiler:''Literature/PerilAtEndHouse'', ''Literature/LordEdgewareDies'', and the short story "The Veiled Lady" -- with honorable mention to ''Literature/MurderOnTheLinks'', where this was attempted but the person doing the hiring was murdered before Poirot had even arrived.]]

** Although the traitor was [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed by an alien into being the traitor.]]

* Randall Banticoff does this to ComicBook/LukeCage in ''Luke Cage Noir'', hiring Cage to investigate his wife's murder while arranging for him to take the rap for the crime - and die before a trial could potentially expose it as a frame job.

* Randall Banticoff does this to [[ComicBook/LukeCageHeroForHire Luke Cage]] in ''Luke Cage Noir'', hiring Cage to investigate his wife's murder while arranging for him to take the rap for the crime - and die before a trial could potentially expose it as a frame job.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[folder: Radio]]

* UrExample is probably the Literature/SherlockHolmes story ''The Adventure of the Retired Colourman''. A quote from the end of the story:

* It has happened to Hercule Poirot. It happened in [[spoiler:Peril At End House, and Lord Edgeware Dies. An honorable mention goes to Murder on the Links where this was attempted but the person got murdered before he could attempt to make Poirot a patsy]]

** "Justice is Blind" has Jack and Trixie hired by a man as incognito security at a showing of his family's heirloom jewelry. In the course of the episode no less than three notorious thieves show up at the event and, when the jewels go missing, they're immediately suspected. The only problem is that one had gone straight, another was scoping out the ''artwork'' in another room, and Jack managed to nab the third when the lights went out, ensuring he ''couldn't'' have done anything. The whole thing turns out to have been a plot [[spoiler:by their client to steal the gems himself for the money, while one of the real thieves was set up for the crime]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' saw this trope used when the agency is hired to protect a high-ranking Catholic Church official, only to learn that the Cardinal that had hired them was relying on their being IncompetenceInc and fail to protect him so that he could get away with it by pointing to how seriously he was taking the threat.

This is an archetypal trope, as even Literature/SherlockHolmes was abused like this.

** Lois Einhorn did much the same thing in the original ''Film/AceVenturaPetDetective'', trying to frame Ace for her own murder of Roger Podacter and kidnapping of Snowflake.

* Taken to the extreme in ''ComicBook/SinCity'' where Eva Lord hires private eye Dwight [=McCarthy=] to get evidence on her supposedly abusive husband who may be plotting to kill her. [[spoiler: It ends up being a setup; she manipulates Dwight into killing her husband himself.]]
* Parodied in the ''Sam Spayed: Babes and Bullets'' section of ''Comicbook/GarfieldHis9Lives'', in which Spayed ''immediately'' assumes his client killed her husband and is planning to doublecross him, he's just not sure why and how. (She didn't.)

--> "You certainly seem to have met every difficulty," said the inspector. "Of course, he was bound to call us in, but why he should have gone to you I can't understand." \\