Related Indexes:
An index for ways in which characters can deduce a clue from their environment:
Verbal clues
- Conviction by Contradiction: Someone is revealed as guilty due to their story having an inconsistency.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: Rendering oneself guilty by having knowledge that they shouldn't have.
- I Never Told You My Name: Rendering oneself guilty by knowing someone's name which they shouldn't.
- Loose Lips: Unintentionally spilling information.
- Notable Non Sequitur: A seemingly nonsensical line that turns out to be a clue.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Denying something in a way that makes them look guilty.
- You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: They called you that just now? Something's wrong.
Written/visual clues
- Affair Letters: Love letters reveal an affair.
- Condensation Clue: A hidden message written in condensation with a finger.
- Convenient Photograph: A photograph captures a piece of crucial information.
- Couldn't Find a Pen: Writing down a clue with something else than a pen, most likely blood.
- Dying Clue: A cryptically written message by a dying character.
- Enhance Button: A clue derived from impossible image enhancement.
- Invisible Writing: Writings that aren't visible to the naked eye.
- Rewind, Replay, Repeat: Replaying video to get a better look at a clue in it.
- Secret Society Group Picture: A picture of the past connects characters.
- Writing Indentation Clue: Rubbing a pencil on a "blank" notebook paper to reveal secret words.
Suspicious character behavior
- Cover Identity Anomaly: An imposter doesn't know a basic piece of information about their cover identity.
- Imposter Forgot One Detail: A Doppelgänger makes a slip that gives them away.
- The Killer Was Left-Handed: Left-handedness as a clue.
- Not Himself: Getting suspicious of a character not acting like their normal self.
- Out-of-Character Alert: An out-of-character action or statement reveals an imposter.
- OOC Is Serious Business: An out-of-character action or statement alerts of some danger.
- Something Only They Would Say: A phrase that reveals a character's true identity.
- Spotting the Thread: A deception is broken by one subtle flaw.
- Suspiciously Prescient Planning: Excessively and specifically preparing for an event indicates foreknowledge of it happening.
- The Tell: A character's body language and/or behavior indicates how they're truly feeling.
Revealing items
- Affair Hair: A hair renders someone guilty of an affair.
- Affair Jewelry: Jewelry is used to clue into an affair or betrayal.
- Anachronistic Clue: An item becomes a clue by being from the wrong time period.
- Bitter Almonds: Cyanide traces identified by their smell.
- Bookmark Clue: A clue is revealed because someone used it for a bookmark.
- Calling Card: A criminal's signature clue.
- Clock Discrepancy: The clock was wrong.
- Detectives Follow Footprints: A detective follows footprints as a clue.
- Footprints of Muck: Footprints as a clue.
- Forgotten Fingerprint: A perfect clean-up is spoiled by physical proof on something they forgot they touched.
- Framed Clue: A clue hides behind a picture frame.
- Fresh Clue: A clue that someone was present not too long ago.
- The Girl Who Fits This Slipper: Clothing being character-specific as a clue.
- A Glitch in the Matrix: A hint that it's All Just a Dream.
- Going by the Matchbook: A branded item, such as a matchbook, provides a clue.
- GPS Evidence: A clue that points to a specific location.
- Identification by Dental Records: Dental records reveal the identity of a victim.
- Imminent Danger Clue: A clue that spells imminent danger.
- It's Quiet… Too Quiet: Silence is ominous.
- Leaving a Trail: Someone leaves a trail of (temporary) clues behind, intentionally or unintentionally.
- Lipstick Mark: A lipstick mark convicts someone of an affair.
- Revealing Injury: A revealed injury serves as a clue.
- Signature Item Clue: A personal item found provides a vital clue.
- Signed with a Kiss: A lipstick mark gives away the identity of a letter's author.
- Stopped Clock: The clock stopped when something happened.
- Trail of Blood: Someone leaves blood behind as a clue.
Other
- Absence of Evidence: The absence of something is a clue in and of itself.
- Clue, Evidence, and a Smoking Gun: A very evident evidence renders moot the deductive, minute, and preceding ones.
- Clue of Few Words: A plotpoint, mystery, or puzzle involves interpreting the meaning of only one to three words.
- Criminal Mind Games: A criminal intentionally leaves behind clues.
- Fingertip Drug Analysis: Tasting a substance to check if it is drugs.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Foreshadowing an event just moments before it happens.
- Foreign Money Is Proof of Guilt: Foreign money being a clue because it's foreign.
- Forensic Accounting: Cracking secrets by tracing their finances and paperwork.
- The Ketchup Test: Tasting a substance to check if it is blood.
- Quiet Cry for Help: A character asking help from others by some indirect hints.
- Police Psychic: Psychic powers being used to get a clue.
- Regularly Scheduled Evil: The regularity of the crime is a clue.
- Revealing Continuity Lapse: An in-universe continuity error, meant to signify something about the story, setting or characters.
- Revealing Cover-Up: Hiding something in such a way that just draws attention to it.
- Sherlock Scan: Noticing a few simple clues with a subsequent impressive logical conclusion.
- Sniff Sniff Nom: Using your sense of taste to identify substances.
- Suspiciously Clean Criminal Record: A clean criminal record raises suspicion.
- Trauma Deduction: A character realizes by putting the pieces together that someone has undergone some sort of trauma in their past.
Hiding clues
- Clock Tampering: Someone messed with this clock.
- Corpse Temperature Tampering: Interfering with the natural cooling of a dead body to obfuscate the time of death.
- Cut-and-Paste Note: Making a note out of existing text to avoid leaving handwriting clues.
- Destroy the Evidence: Destroying or hiding evidence for another character's crimes.
- Eat the Evidence: Disposing of clues by eating them.
- Faking and Entering: Staging a break-in to cover up something else.
- Fiery Cover-Up: Burning the evidence for your crime.
- Hide the Evidence: Hiding clues to prevent them from being found.
- Inconveniently Vanishing Exonerating Evidence: Important evidence disappears.
- It Was Here, I Swear!: While witnesses are being retrieved, the evidence disappears.
- Obfuscating Postmortem Wounds: Additional wounds are inflicted on a corpse to mask the true cause of death.
Clues that are not
- The Corpse Stops Here: A person seen hunching over the victim's body is never the culprit.
- Conveniently Distorted Evidence Footage: A photo or film that could reveal the truth is too blurry or dark or damaged to be useful.
- Conveniently Interrupted Document: A document is missing the part that could give away a clue.
- Fabricated Evidence: Evidence that was faked in order to obscure the truth.
- False Confession: Confessing to crimes that you didn't do to confuse the investigation.
- Mistaken for Evidence: What you thought was a clue, wasn't.
- Orgy of Evidence: The sheer amount of clues reveals that they're fake.
- Possession Presumes Guilt: An innocent person holds an item that makes them look guilty.
- Red Herring: Something which seems like a clue but isn't.
- Useless Security Camera: No clues from the cameras.