Reverse Mysteries

In this episode, Brook and Sarah discuss reverse mysteries, or “how catch ’ems,” where the audience knows who the culprit is from the beginning.

Discussed and mentioned

Columbo (1971–2003) Television series

Malice Aforethought (1931) Francis Iles (Anthony Berkeley Cox)

The 12:30 from Croydon (1934) Freeman Wills Crofts

Mr. Pottermack’s Oversight (1930) R. Austin Freeman

Dial M for Murder (1954) Alfred Hitchcock — Film adaptation of Frederick Knott’s 1952 play

How to Kill Your Employer (2022) Rupert Holmes

Dexter (TV Series: 2006-2013)

Midsomer Murders (TV series: 1997-present)

Catch Me If You Can (2002 film)

You (2014) Caroline Kepnes (Netflix adaptation: 2018-2025)

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Transcript

This transcript is generated by a computer and there may be some mis-spellings and strange punctuation. We try to catch these before posting, but some things slip through.

Sarah	Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I’m Sarah.
Brook	And I’m Brook, and we both love mystery.
Sarah	Hi, Brook.
Brook	Hi, Sarah. Well, you know, most of the time when we pick up a mystery, we’re asking one big question. Who dunnit? But today we’re talking about a fascinating twist on that formula, the so-called “how catch ‘em” or “inverted detective story”.
Brook	In this type of mystery, we already know who committed the crime. There’s no question about the identity of the villain for the audience. Instead, the suspense lies in a different question, how will they be caught?
Brook	This structure isn’t new. As early as 1912, R. Austin Freeman was experimenting with what he called “the inverted detective story”. So, he would deliberately reveal the crime and the criminal up front and then shift the tension to the investigation itself.
Brook	In the 1930s, writers like Anthony Berkeley and Ngaio Marsh were using the technique, showing that authors were also playing with reverse mysteries during the Golden Age.
Brook	Berkeley’s Malice Aforethought, under his pen name Francis Isles, is an example of this type of mystery. The term “how catch ‘em”, though, wasn’t coined until 1963 by Philip MacDonald.
Brook	But most of today’s mystery fans will recognize the format from the show Columbo, where every week we would watch the murderer execute the crime in meticulous detail, only to see what they thought was a perfect plan unravel under the detective’s careful investigation.
Brook	By giving viewers or readers an inside peek at the criminal’s plan, writers create this enjoyable cat and mouse game where the audience has more information than the detective, or at least they think they do.
Brook	So, today we’ll talk about how this style of mystery differs from traditional whodunnits and why knowing the killer up front doesn’t necessarily spoil the fun, it definitely changes the game though.
Brook	So Sarah, did you grow up watching Columbo?
Sarah	Columbo, I think, is a little before my time. I’m certainly familiar with Peter Falk and the, you know, the trench coat and the one more thing. um But i I mean, maybe I’ve seen some episodes, but I was really young and so I don’t, I don’t have much of a ah memory.
Brook	I was the same. And I watched some Columbo this week in thinking about how Ketchum’s. And I, my husband told me how much he did not like this show as a kid at all, because one of the things that Peter Falk does as the character is sort of play dumb.
Brook	Right. And he, ah acts as if he’s like this bumbling detective when actually he’s got things figured out. And apparently that was not a trope that my husband found entertaining at all, but he did suffer through a few episodes with me. And I did not watch it a lot when I was a kid either, but I do find that I like that It is a reversal. We have the entire plan, the entire crime laid out for us, and then we get to watch how the detective picks it apart. So um I did find it entertaining. One thing this format does is it really allows for authors or producers of shows to play with things like dual timelines and point of view shifts, because obviously part of the part of the show or the mystery is from the killer’s perspective. And part of it is from the detectives.
Sarah	Mm-hmm.
Brook	And I do think that this ah scenario tends to be easier to pull off on screen than in books. Do you agree, Sarah?
Sarah	I think so. I will admit, I, I don’t know that I’ve read a lot of inverted mysteries. um But yeah, I mean, I, I can probably think of some more um examples on screen. I think of, I’m not sure if this would qualify or not.
Sarah	But I think of Midsumer Murders and often the opening scene is a figure, you see hands that are in black gloves and they are doing something that causes someone else to be dead, right? um Either manipulating some machinery or actually you know strangling or or attacking someone.
Sarah	But we don’t know the identity of that person until the detective does his reveal. So I’m not sure if that would if that would count.
Brook	I definitely think that that is like we can trace it back to ah to the more traditional Howe Ketchum’s. And I think that it’s interesting that you say, you know, “I don’t feel like I’ve read any” because that’s what I ended up coming up with myself. And I think the detective story version of these really,  ran out, I guess, in the, around the golden age. I mentioned Malice Aforethought. Another example of a detective story that’s told in this reverse manner is a 1934 novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, and it’s called The 1230 From Croydon.
Brook	And then also I mentioned R. Austin Freeman, and his 1930 book that features a premeditated murder is Mr. Pottermack’s Oversight. So I think there was a real um maybe boom of these for ah for a period of time. And I would agree. I don’t think we see a lot of them these days. But I do think we see the how catch ‘em idea in psychological thrillers because many times we know what is going on with the villain, even though we’re mostly in the head of the, you know, innocent person who’s become, didn’t come involved in this, who is trying to to discover what’s really going on. And there again, we have that, inner knowledge as the audience.
Sarah	Well, and sometimes you see it in a book where ah there might be scenes with the killer, again, not but perhaps not identified, right? But we see the we read about the killer doing some actions or or reflecting on their actions perhaps. um And then that killer’s identity isn’t revealed until until later in the book. um But yeah, I really struggled to think of any books where I knew from the beginning who the bad guy was.
Brook	Right. You know, when we first started talking about this topic, the book that came to mind for me was How to Kill Your Employer. And I really thought that this was an example, you know, a contemporary example. It’s about a secret academy that trains people to eliminate problematic ah people in their lives without getting caught. And um we’re inside the criminal’s head from the beginning and we see them planning this crime.
Brook	But in fact, it’s not exactly a how catch ‘em because there is not a detective who’s trying to dismantle the scheme on the other side. It’s really just only from the criminal’s perspective of do I get caught or do I not get caught? So I think it’s got some influence, but it’s not a how catch ‘em after all.
Sarah	Yeah. And and there perhaps some more examples of what you just described where that narration, we do know who the identity of the killer is and they are telling the story from their perspective.
Brook	Right. Right. I think of, um, You by Carolyn Kepnes. Uh, I’ve haven’t read that book, but it was, adapted for a Netflix series. And you’re in this close perspective, first person look at this stalker and murderer and his rationale and his actions. And I think that’s an example of, of what you’re, what you’re saying there.
Sarah	And I, you know, i I think about that and I wonder how audiences, whether they really enjoy those because I think myself as a reader, I’m not sure that I do enjoy that because you’re just a little too close to the crime. Right. And it can feel very uncomfortable. Right. And yeah, I just, I don’t know if, if they do as well.
Sarah	I mean, I, I know it’s a Netflix adaptation and there were several series of it, so it must’ve done well enough. But, um you know, you think about Knives Out, for example, and I have to imagine that that reaches a wider audience.
Brook	Yeah, I see what you mean. Well, and Dexter, like I never watched Dexter. I understand the concept is that he’s a Robin Hood murderer, I guess, if you can call it that. But that just didn’t really set with me, although I know it was wildly popular. popular So I see what you’re saying, Sarah.
Sarah	Yeah. And, and Dexter is a really good example. And I have seen, i don’t think I watched it to the end of the series, but I have seen some Dexter and, and you certainly are meant to feel quite sympathetic for him because he’s very calculated in terms of who it is that he goes after.
Sarah	Um so you know, Robin Hood is, is a pretty good description. As a reader, that you know, we’ve talked about kind of in past episodes about villains that we, that were meant to like, and that’s the same kind of thing that, I mean, Dexter is definitely an example of that.
Sarah	um And, you know, you’re hoping that he evades capture because you’ve come to, to like him. And that’s a very interesting um thought that you could like this character who’s also done some horrific things.
Brook	Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I think that ah feeling even translates a little bit if we go back to the more traditional “how catch ‘em”, let’s say a Columbo.
Brook	ah you These are episodic. You’re not getting you know too attached to any character. But I do think that there is the feeling as the viewer of like is he going to get away with this?
Brook	This is a pretty good plan. Like, is this murderer going to evade capture?
Sarah	Mm-hmm.
Brook	You know, he doesn’t. Columbo’s too good. But I think that same emotion kind of gets, I think that same experience of having just a little bit of sympathy or a appreciation for what the murderer has a tried to accomplish with this plan is there as well.
Sarah	Well, and it’ it’s interesting because Dexter is a series just revolving around that character who is the bad guy versus Columbo, who is the investigator, right?
Brook	Yes.
Sarah	And he’s meant to be the more sympathetic character, the one that the audience is, they keep coming back because they want to watch Columbo.
Sarah	The bad guy is different every every episode.
Brook	Yes
Sarah	And I wonder if when it’s framed that way, is a little bit more palatable to audiences because you’re seeing right and justice and um you know someone being caught for their behavior.
Brook	You know, I think it’s kind of right in this title, but we’ve spoken about the movie Catch Me If You Can, the Frank Abagnale story before. And… as a film, that’s a great example of a “how catch ‘em” because um Tom Hanks character, i don’t remember the FBI agent’s name, but he knows for a long time or suspects for a long time that Frank Abagnale is the guy who’s, you know, kiting these checks and doing these criminal behaviors, but ah he can’t nail it down and catch him. And we get to see behind the scenes and watch the you know, watch him make the fake checks and pretend to be a pilot. And it’s a lot of fun to see, like, is he going to get caught for for what he’s doing?
Sarah	Yeah, that is a great example.
Brook	Well, Alfred Hitchcock was famously interested in suspense over surprise, and he was not known to produce or make whodunits, but he did enjoy this “how catch ‘em” model.
Brook	Dial M for Murder is a great example of one of his films that uses it. We see the plan, we know the perpetrator, and then, as we’ve mentioned, that tension comes from watching it unfold and and unravel for that person.
Brook	And I think Hitchcock really understood that giving the audience more information when a lot of ah you know filmmakers or authors were trying to hide all the juicy details, but it can really create a lot of anxiety and and great suspense.
Sarah	Yeah, well, it’s that dramatic irony, right? Where you as the audience know more than the detective and you just hope that he will be able to figure it out.
Brook	Exactly.
Brook	You know this structure isn’t tied to tone, which is why I think it’s important to say this isn’t really a sub-genre of mystery. It’s definitely a story structure or a a formula, I guess, because you can have the really gritty stories that we spoke of, of having a psychological thriller, that dives into the killer’s mindset or be on the cozier lighter end like Columbo, or i I know some of the, um, Murder She Wrote episodes play with this concept a little bit. So using this style of storytelling has a lot of flexibility.
Sarah	And do you think, Brook, it works better in one of those subgenres than in another?
Brook	I wonder if it comes down to taste, like you were saying. For me… I can really have a lot of fun with like the Columbo scenario. um And I would put that on the cozier end of the spectrum because as you were saying, it’s sometimes it’s uncomfortable being that close to the killer in a more psychological thriller. And those are the scenes. If it’s a dual point of view story where part of the time you’re in their head and So you’re seeing what the killer has planned, and then you’re back in the sleuth or the hero’s head. Those scenes are usually the part that make the book creepy and you know scary.
Sarah	We haven’t talked a lot about structure. So, I think this is one of the first times that that’s that that’s come up.
Brook	Yeah, you’re probably right.
Sarah	You know, I think about what’s satisfying for me in a mystery, and it’s that unraveling of the clues and the… um the process of discovering who is behind everything. And I think this may be why I haven’t read a lot of these stories and perhaps why they are not written as, as much as they had been in the past. I don’t think it’s as satisfying to know who the killer is from the very beginning.
Brook	I, I know what you’re saying. It completely changes the experience um from a exercise of an author it’s very interesting to think about because it’s great to have the, um to have all those details ahead of time to then be able to reverse it and plant them and create a fun experience for a reader. But um I do know what you’re talking about. It is a completely different, different experience.
Sarah	Okay. Well, thank you, Brook, for sharing a little bit about reverse mysteries or “how catch ‘ems”. This has been a really interesting conversation.
Brook	It’s been fun, Sarah. And I liked your comment about that. We haven’t spoken a lot about structure. So, you know, there’s another show idea for us.
Sarah	Absolutely.
Brook	But listeners, here’s your question of the week. What hooks you more, slowly discovering who did it or watching if they’ll get caught?
Brook	Until next time, thank you for joining us on Clued in Mystery. I’m Brook.
Sarah	And I’m Sarah, and we both love mystery.