History Main / WhodunnitToMe

* Played with in the ''Series/FatherBrown'' episode "The Prize of General Gerard". After eating fish soup tainted with tiger's whiskers (which were earlier used to kill General Gerard), Father Brown insisted on continuing the investigation, even though he insisted he was beyond help. [[spoiler:Subverted in that he was acting; he never ate the soup and only claimed to be poisoned to draw out the real killer.]]

* ''Film/TheCrow'': Eric Draven rises from the grave to hunt down the criminals who murdered him and his fiancée.

->'''Frank Bigelow''': I'd like to report a murder.\\
'''Captain''': Sit down. Where was this murder committed?\\
'''Frank Bigelow''': San Francisco, last night.\\
'''Captain''': Who was murdered?\\
'''Frank Bigelow''': I was.

* Another TimeTravel version is the mini-series ''Series/FiveDaysToMidnight'', when the protagonist is sent a futuristic briefcase by an unknown party, containing a police file on his murder to happen five days later.

* ''Literature/RememberMe'': Shari begins the novel already dead. She was killed at a party, and being a ghost, she must figure out which one of her friends killed her.

* The ''Literature/TakeshiKovacs'' book ''Altered Carbon'' a FilmNoir-style thriller with an investigator hired by the restored backup of an apparent suicide. The victim does not believe that he could have possibly wanted to kill himself; indeed, it would be futile given that he was backed up and brought back to life in under 48 hours and instead believes he was murdered and demands justice.

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' is about a [[ArtificialIntelligence Machine]] that can predict murders before they occur. In the "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS02E20 In Extremis]]", a computer virus is starting to affect its performance, so Team Machine arrive [[YouAreTooLate too late]] to stop the VictimOfTheWeek from being poisoned with polonium that will kill him within a day, so they help him track down his murderer instead. He actually dies at one point, only to be revived with a ShotToTheHeart.

* In the ShowWithinAShow episode of ''Anime/MarginalNumber4'', Atom plays a detective and Rui plays the ghost of his murdered partner. They have 24 hours to solve the case, before the ghost disappears forever. [[spoiler: Except that was a lie - the "ghost" is actually the murdered cop's nephew, and he lies to his uncle's partner because he suspects - correctly - that that's the culprit.]]

* [[CuteGhostGirl Emily]] from ''ComicBook/AnyasGhost'' wants to find the man that killed her family. Subverted later, where it's revealed there was no murderer. Aside from [[{{Yandere}} Emily]], of course.
* This was part of the title character's original motivation in ''ComicBook/{{Ghost|DarkHorseComics}}'' from Creator/DarkHorseComics.
* In the original graphic novel ''Film/{{RIPD}}'' this was Nick's motivation for joining the R.I.P.D.

* This was the whole idea behind the DC Comics character Deadman, who died in his first story - and became a superhero as a result, fighting crime in spirit-form while investigating his own death. At one point, it looked like his killer was Joe Chill, the same thug who had murdered Franchise/{{Batman}}'s parents.

[[AC:Fanfic]]

[[AC:Film - Live-Action]]

* ''Film/{{Ghost|1990}}'': Sam Wheat becomes a ghost after being killed in a mugging gone wrong, and discovers there's more to his death than just making him an unfortunate statistic.
* The movie ''Film/OhHeavenlyDog'' sends back a murdered human in dog form to investigate his death.

* In ''Franchise/RoboCop'', both versions, Alex Murphy tracks down the criminals who all but killed him.
* In the 1941 film ''Film/TopperReturns'', heroine Gail Richards is murdered in an OldDarkHouse, only for her ghost to investigate her own death.
* The '50s movie, ''Film/YouNeverCanTell'' tells the story of a murdered dog who was sent back by 'dog heaven' as a human to investigate his own murder.

* The zombie-PI protagonist of Creator/KevinJAnderson's ''Literature/DeathWarmedOver'' investigates his own murder along with several others. He mentions that a number of ghosts or other zombies have hired him to solve their murders.

* ''Literature/EmilyBonesCityOfGhosts'': Upon realising she is a ghost, Emily very quickly learns she was murdered. She immediately decides to find her murderer and take revenge, which is essentially what constitutes the plot for the rest of the book.
--> Atop the Eiffel Tower stood an invisible girl and surveyed Paris, looking for her murderer.
** The trope is also very important for the plot as Emily's murderer is a very powerful being who has long evaded detection by the forces of good, and it is precisely the fact that he murdered Emily personally that allows Emily to track him.

* ''Literature/GhostStory'', Book 13 of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', has this as its plot, with a ghostly Harry Dresden trying to find out who killed him, and the more important question of who ordered it done. As it turns out, the answer is...[[MemoryGambit Harry Dresden]]. Also, [[AnAstralProjectionNotAGhost he's not exactly dead]]...

* ''Remember Me'', a novel by Creator/ChristopherPike. Shari begins the novel already dead. She was killed at a party, and being a ghost she must figure out which one of her friends killed her.

* In an episode of ''Series/AlfredHitchcockPresents'' titled "Whodunit" a deceased mystery author talks a recording angel into letting him go back to his last day alive to find out...you know.

* One episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' has the corpses of murder victims talking about their murders (as the [=CSIs=] solve the cases).

* ''Series/GhostsUS'': Alberta is convinced she was murdered and asks Samantha to solve her murder, even though the other ghosts say she just had a heart attack. [[spoiler: In "Alberta's Fan", we learn she was right; her moonshine was poisoned.]]
* ''Series/HotelBeauSejour'', Kato van Hoeven tries to find out who murdered her. Unfortunately, she has no memory of the 24 hours before her death, and only five people can see her ghost, all of who have their own secrets.
* The first episode of ''Series/RandallAndHopkirkDeceased'' - original and remake.

* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'': "[[Recap/TorchwoodS1E9RandomShoes Random Shoes]]". Eugene's ghost follows the Torchwood crew around as they investigate his death. He manages to appear briefly to his family before [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascending to a Higher Plane of Existence]].
* ''Series/SchoolSpirits'': Maddie's ghost is bound to the school and doesn't remember a brief period before she died, and is working with her best friend [[ISeeDeadPeople Simon]] to determine which of the people in the surprisingly busy basement that day - her boyfriend, the girl he was cheating on her with, the janitor, her mother, her favorite teacher, her other best friend - killed her. In the first season finale, she learns [[spoiler: the answer is no-one. Another ghost [[GrandTheftMe stole her body, which is still alive]].]]

* The Flash adventure game ''VideoGame/TheDeadCase'' revolves around a ghost trying to settle its unfinished business and move on, but it has GhostAmnesia and so first it has to figure out what its unfinished business is.
* The eponymous character of the PC game ''VideoGame/GhostInTheSheet'' starts the game by getting run over by a bus. He's not quite satisfied with the "it was an accident" theory, but he has to put it on the back burner in favor of the job his new boss has given him. At the end it's revealed that his boss arranged for it to happen for reasons that aren't clear (at least, not clear as to why GITS specifically) but appear to revolve around a need for a lackey of some kind.
* Sissel's motivation as the eponymous ghost in ''[[VideoGame/GhostTrick Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective]]'' is not only to find his killer, but to find out who he is in the first place, as ghosts have amnesia when they are formed and slowly remember things over time.
* ''Videogame/MurderedSoulSuspect'', in which a murdered detective becomes a ghost and sets out to solve his own murder.

* [[http://www.missmab.com/Demo/undead.php Rachel-Rebecca the Third]] from ''[[Webcomic/DanAndMabsFurryAdventures DMFA]]'' was a law school student who got murdered. After getting reanimated, she got her own murderer convicted and went on to establish legal rights for TheUndead.

* Creator/TomKing's ''ComicBook/TheHumanTarget2021'' miniseries features this as the driving plot. Christopher Chance, the titular BodyDouble[=/=]detective, gets poisoned while doubling as [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]], putting him on the hunt for whoever tried to murder his client before [[YourDaysAreNumbered the poison kills him in 12 days]].

* Roger Mortis's (Treat Williams) situation in ''Film/DeadHeat'' is a mix of both this and Already Dead. He gets killed while investigating a criminal conspiracy that involves raising the dead and is resurrected, but only has 12 hours before his body breaks down.

-->'''Nobody''': Did you kill the man who killed you?\\
'''Blake''': I'm not dead.\\
'''Nobody''': ''(snorts in disgust)''
* ''Film/{{DOA}}'', both the 1950 original and the 1988 "remake", a man has been given a slow-acting but irremediable poison, and races to discover who did it and why before it finishes him off.

* ''Film/{{Kate}}'': Kate, the titular assassin of the film, is poisoned with Polonium-204 and has 24 hours (once she wakes up in the hospital) to find out who poisoned her, why she was poisoned, and get revenge.

* A story in ''Creator/AlfredHitchcock's Mystery Magazine'' involving a man who is shot, and has a near death experience. While still in the hospital, he tries to figure out who did it, and does. There's one more dangerous surgery to be done to get the bullet out, and the story ends with him saying "[[BolivianArmyEnding I'm ready.]]"
* In Creator/GKChesterton's short story "The Resurrection of Literature/FatherBrown", the titular priestly detective is supposedly murdered and is just about to be buried before he wakes up in his coffin. It turns out he was fed a poison which caused him to go into a coma almost resembling death. The remainder of the short story concerns Father Brown's efforts to discover who did this to him.

* ''Literature/{{Noob}}'' is mostly set in a {{MMORPG}} in which the avatar's permanent banishment is a frequent punishment for breaking the game's rules. In the third novel, Gaea ends up in a FrameUp for something that should have gotten her avatar perma-banned on the spot. It turns out to be still usable thanks to a little help from TheCracker (a frequent business partner of hers), who warns her that what he did to protect her avatar from the game's authorities won't last forever. She decides to use the time she has to figure out who the real guilty party is. Fortunately, the guilty party in question was practically waiting around the corner to gloat to her about it and got CaughtOnTape.

* ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'': In the two-part seaon 6 opener, Rick is exposed to a nerve gas and given 24 hours to live. He and Beckett use the time to attempt to locate the perpetrators and recover the gas and (hopefully) the antidote.
* Used in ''Series/{{CSI}}'', when an attorney who'd been working with Sarah informs her that she won't be able to finish the case because the bullet lodged in her cranium from a previous crime has shifted inside the skull and will soon kill her. Subverted when, against all expectation, she survives the surgery to remove the bullet, which subsequently proves that she'd been shot while in the process of murdering her husband.
* An early ''Series/CSIMiami'' was about a woman who was poisoned with radioactive materials by a CorruptCorporateExecutive ([[RedHerring or rather]] a level employee who she seduced to get information) because she happened to be the lawyer working the joint lawsuit against their illegal dumping practices.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'' had this as a significant plot point throughout Series 6, with the Doctor being "killed" in Utah in the first episode and having to find out why and by whom he was murdered, and the threads of it carried over into Series 7, as The Doctor now knew WHO did it, but was still trying to figure out the specifics of WHY, a question which was finally answered in the Christmas special "[[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor The Time of the Doctor]]".
* Played with in the ''Series/FatherBrown'' episode "The Prize of General Gerard". After eating fish soup tainted with tiger's whiskers (which were earlier used to kill General Gerard), Father Brown insisted on continuing the investigation, even though he insisted he was beyond help. [[spoiler: Subverted in that he was acting; he never ate the soup and only claimed to be poisoned to draw out the real killer.]]
* ''Series/GetSmart''. In "Classification: Dead", Maxwell Smart is poisoned by a KAOS agent, and had to race the clock to find the agent and get the cure.
* In the ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' episode "Subway", a man is pushed off a subway platform in front of an oncoming train. However, instead of being run over, he gets wedged between the train and the edge of the platform. Essentially, the lower half of his body has been crushed, but the organs in his torso are kept in place due to him being pinned. He's dying slowly due to blood poisoning and other issues, but the paramedics say that as soon as they try to remove him, basically everything is going to fall out of his body like a leaky sack and he'll die immediately. This inspired the similar situation in the comic ''Top Ten'', above.

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko Alexander Litvinenko]] case was apparently RippedFromTheHeadlines in ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent''. Litvenenko is actually mentioned by name.

* The ''Series/{{Monk}}'' series finale: Monk is poisoned. They find the culprit fairly quickly, but need the poison. Monk still has a chance to live.

** "Dead Man Walking". A naval lieutenant walks (somewhat weakly) into NCIS and asks Gibbs to solve a murder. When Gibbs asks whose murder, the lieutenant pulls out a clump of his own hair, revealing that he's been poisoned and needs the team to find out who poisoned him. GenreSavvy Tony makes a comparison by name to ''DOA''.

** ''Series/NCISNewOrleans'' used this as well in "The Walking Dead". A naval psychiatrist collapses and is found to have been poisoned with polonium-210 two weeks earlier, and he will be dead in another two weeks.
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' is about a [[ArtificialIntelligence Machine]] that can predict murders before they occur. But in the Season 2 episode "In Extremis", a computer virus is starting to affect its performance, so Team Machine arrive too late to stop the VictimOfTheWeek from being poisoned with polonium that will kill him within a day, so they help him track down his murderer instead. He actually dies at one point, only to be revived with a ShotToTheHeart.
* In the ''Series/StarCops'' episode "Conversations with the Dead", a space freighter is knocked off course, with no way of reaching safety or being reached by rescuers before its oxygen supplies give out. The crew of the freighter interact with the cops investigating the incident by radio. [[spoiler: Except it turns out that by a staggeringly improbable coincidence, their ship is carrying some untested experimental [[HumanPopsicle cryosleep chambers]] and the inventor of said devices just ''happens'' to overhear what's going on and steps in to help. Our heroes figure out what's probably going on quite quickly, but since all the evidence is going to take most of a decade to get back to Earth there's not much they can do about it.]]
* In the ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'' episode "A Coffin for Starsky," the guys have one day to find out who poisoned Starsky before he dies.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E7Reunion "Reunion"]], Klingon Chancellor K'mpec reveals that he's been gradually poisoned and will be dead soon. He asks Captain Picard to find out who is responsible, focusing on the two challengers to his soon-to-be-vacant position; Duras and Gowron. However, K'mpec's request of Picard is less about the fact that one of his would-be-successors has murdered him, but rather that they did so using such a cowardly method as poison instead of [[KlingonPromotion challenging him directly]].

* The short-lived ''Series/{{Timecop}}'' series had "D.O.A.", where Jack and his boss Matuzek are suddenly killed at night by a car bomb in their headquarters' parking lot. Hemmings uses the time travel equipment to go back to that morning and warn Jack of his impending demise. Jack spends the rest of the episode rushing to put the pieces together, while Matuzek (though trying to help) treats it as his last day alive and takes care of family business. They actually fail to solve the case and appear ready to follow through with history, but their investigation changed things enough to prevent the explosive from being planted. Jack later figures out the culprit was someone he met that day and saves Matuzek from being gunned down in an alley.
** Jack also thought he was the target due to Timecop-related business, but it turned out to be Matuzek due to "ordinary cop" business (even though the culprit knew about time travel).

* The Flash game ''[[http://armorgames.com/play/4966/sixty-seconds-to-live Sixty Seconds To Live]]''. The title is fairly self-explanatory here.
* In ''VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles: Madame Fate'', the fortune teller Madame Fate wants to find out which of her workers is plotting her death at the stroke of midnight. The answer? It's none of them as they are all found to be dead/doomed by midnight. The answer is the ghost of Charles Dalimar, the Big Bad of the series, who only gets involved ''because'' Madame Fate went to the Master Detective for help.

[[folder:Restored From Backup]]

* In ''[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Manga/Dorohedoro Dorohedoro]]'', Both [[BackFromTheDead Risu]] and his [[OurGhostsAreDifferent curse]] [[VengefulGhost magic]] spend a majority of the story trying to uncover the mystery behind the identity of the Cross-Eye man who killed him years ago.

* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'': The spinoff title ''The Wanderers'' from the Eighties revolved around a group of [[HeroOfAnotherStory minor heroes]], and began with a scientist finding the bodies of the slaughtered team. The rest of the first issue sees the scientist, Clonus, have a clone of himself create clones of the Wanderers with enhanced powers and changed appearances, so they can investigate their own murders during the first StoryArc.

* ''Literature/AlteredCarbon'' by Creator/RichardKMorgan is a FilmNoir style thriller, with an investigator hired by the restored backup of an apparent suicide. The victim does not believe that he could have possibly wanted to kill himself; indeed it would be futile given that he was backed up and brought back to life in under 48 hours and instead believes he was murdered and demands justice.

* Count Sessine from ''Literature/FeersumEndjinn'' by Creator/IainMBanks.
* At the beginning of the ''Literature/TheGoblinReservation'', Peter Maxwell describes how he ended up on another planet during a teleporter transit, with the data stream intercepted by SufficientlyAdvancedAliens, only to be told that the stream isn't just intercepted but ''duplicated'', meaning a Peter Maxwell has already returned to Earth, only to die in a freak accident.

* In ''Literature/AMemoryCalledEmpire'' Mahit has her predecessor Yskandr's VirtualGhost loaded into her brain implant, but that backup is fifteen years out of date and had no idea his original was dead until they saw his corpse, and then had a mental breakdown and went silent. But as Mahit investigates Yskandr's death she gets flashes of his memory. [[spoiler: She eventually does get the version of Yskander that remembers uploaded into her, but at that point the ''who'' is less interesting than the ''why.'']]
* The Creator/JohnVarley short story, "[[Literature/EightWorlds The Phantom of Kansas]]", opens with the protagonist awakening and discovering that this is the ''third'' time she's been restored from backup. The original, and the two previous backups, have all been killed.

* ''Voice of the Whirlwind'' by Creator/WalterJonWilliams: The protagonist is a clone whose original self has been murdered, and he decides to investigate who did it and why. The problem is that his memories from the original are fifteen years out of date as the original never bothered to update the initial brain recordings.
* ''Literature/WhoCensoredRogerRabbit''. Unlike ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', Roger is dead, and his doppelganger (a temporary copy of himself) goes to Eddie to find out who iced the original.

* In the ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' episode "Haunted", Echo gets the personality of a recently dead woman who wants to solve her own murder.

* In the ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' modules "Continuity" and "Acrimony" the player characters are backups investigating the fates of their originals. While in "Ego Hunter" all of the [=PCs=] are [[MesACrowd forks]] of a single person, who never showed up to re-integrate them.

** A sidebar in the ''Toxic Memes'' entry on Derivatives, limited copies of Sapient AIs which are intended to be reintegrated later, mentions an [=InVid=] drama called ''Facets'', in which a group of Low-sapient and Nonsapient derivatives have to work together to solve the murder of their "parent".

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': In the two-part seaon 6 opener, Rick is exposed to a nerve gas and given 24 hours to live. He and Beckett use the time to attempt to locate the perpetrators and recover the gas and (hopefully) the antidote.

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!!'''As a DeathTrope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

* Creator/TomKing's ''ComicBook/HumanTarget'' miniseries features this as the driving plot. Christopher Chance, the titular BodyDouble[=/=]detective, gets poisoned while doubling as [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]], putting him on the hunt for whoever tried to murder his client before [[YourDaysAreNumbered the poison kills him in 12 days]].

* ''Series/TheRising'': Neve, after discovering she's a ghost and was murdered, sets out to find her killer, helping the police investigating covertly.