# Has this twist ever been used in a mystery novel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 2, 2011, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-this-twist-ever-been-used-in-a-mystery-novel/604794 "2011-12-02T03:50:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-this-twist-ever-been-used-in-a-mystery-novel/604794/61 "2012-09-12T18:29:18Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > That’s > > Towards Zero. The murderer frames himself poorly for the murder, and frames his ex-wife very well for both the murder and the initial frame-up. > > That’s the first one I thought of when I read the OP, but I can’t remember whether Poirot is actually hired to exonerate the murderer, or just wanders in. Poirot neither gets hired nor wanders in. [spoiler]It’s a Superintendent Battle story, where our hero dispassionately hunts for truth like the pride of Scotland Yard should. (Interestingly, the villain’s first-known crime uses the get-away-with-murder strategy Poirot recommends in CURTAIN as the easiest-and-best method he’d personally employ to kill someone and make it look like an accident; it of course works, placating the authorities and leaving only an amateur sleuth with unprovable suspicions; the villain then kills that sleuth, and makes it look like natural causes; and there’s yet _ **another** _ death that everyone thought was an accident, and which Battle still can’t be sure wasn’t murder as the book ends.) (If not for switching to that frame-himself-and-frame-someone-else-for-framing-him tactic, his usual plan may well have worked yet again – though even then, he only winds up confessing because Battle confronts the guy with fake evidence in best Columbo fashion; as ever, there wasn’t really a witness.)[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Ambrosio\_Spinola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Ambrosio\_Spinola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambrosio_Spinola)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-this-twist-ever-been-used-in-a-mystery-novel/604794/62 "2012-09-12T21:04:21Z")
In the science-fiction novel _Altered Carbon_, the main character is hired to solve the murder of an old rich dude by the backup copy of the old rich dude himself. The cops said it was suicide and refuse to investigate any more, and the guy thinks that there’s a huge conspiracy of some sort going on. As it turns out, there in fact was a huge conspiracy, but it didn’t involve the cops, and the guy actually did commit suicide. Upon discovering this, the main character is extorted into convincing his employer that he committed suicide for a different reason than he actually did. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-this-twist-ever-been-used-in-a-mystery-novel/604794/63 "2012-09-12T21:18:29Z")
Not a mystery novel but I think there was a _Big Valley_ episode where a guy that Jarrod was self-righteously defending against a murder charge was actually guilty. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-this-twist-ever-been-used-in-a-mystery-novel/604794/64 "2012-09-16T21:22:38Z")
This is also the plot of at least one Phoenix Wright case, or, at least, the first half. The second half has to do with the fact that you, as a defense lawyer, now have to defend someone you know is guilty. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-this-twist-ever-been-used-in-a-mystery-novel/604794/65 "2012-09-16T23:36:25Z")
Lincoln Lawyer involves something like this. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-this-twist-ever-been-used-in-a-mystery-novel/604794/66 "2012-09-17T02:56:53Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Not sure why I’m putting this in spoiler tags, but just to be on the safe side. I don’t know how to hint at what’s inside without negating the need for spoiler tags. Hmm… > > I don’t recall all the details (read it far too many years ago), but I’m pretty sure that Who Censored Roger Rabbit (the book that Who Framed Roger Rabbit was based off) kind of fits the OP. Unfortunately, that twist made it difficult to have a sequel, which the ending was ripe for: What happens when Eddie’s wish (or is it wishes?) wear off? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-this-twist-ever-been-used-in-a-mystery-novel/604794/67 "2012-09-17T03:40:30Z")
Also, here’s my suggestion for dealing with spoilers like that: mention something in the book that only those who have read it would know. For example, mention the book where the guy who was killed by the genie actually wound up doing it. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-this-twist-ever-been-used-in-a-mystery-novel/604794/68 "2012-09-17T04:55:15Z")
_Who Censored Roger Rabbit_. Roger hires Eddie Valiant to find out if why he can’t get his own strip, but in the course of the investigation Roger is killed (but his doppelganger remains), and his boss is murdered and the evidence points to Roger doing it. Eddie takes the case to find who murdered Roger’s boss, among other things. Turns out Roger did it. Wild book. I really liked it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-this-twist-ever-been-used-in-a-mystery-novel/604794/69 "2012-09-25T17:49:44Z")
The idea, I find, even _predates Sherlock Holmes_. I’ve been reading Wilkie Collins’ _The Moonstone_, which was written in 1868. Although the OP’s suggestion wasn’t at the heart of the novel, it’s certainly considered. In Second Period, Chapter III. The novel concerns the theft of a diamond, the titular Moonstone. > [@](#): > > “Why – even supposing he did take the Diamond – should Franklin Blake make himself the most prominent person in the house in trying to recover it? You may tell me he cunningly did that to divert suspicion from himself. I answer that he had no need to divert suspicion — because nobody suspected him…” Page 220 in the Oxford Classics edition. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-this-twist-ever-been-used-in-a-mystery-novel/604794.md?page=3)