Crossword clues for whodunit
whodunit
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"murder mystery," 1930, U.S. slang, originally a semi-facetious formation from who done it? Whydunit is from 1968.
Wiktionary
n. A novel or drama concerning a crime (usually a murder) in which a detective follows clues to determine the perpetrator.
WordNet
n. a story about a crime (usually murder) presented as a novel or play or movie [syn: mystery, mystery story]
Wikipedia
A whodunit or whodunnit (for "Who [has] done it?" or "Who did it?") is a complex, plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the audience is given the opportunity to engage in the same process of deduction as the protagonist throughout the investigation of a crime. The reader or viewer is provided with the clues from which the identity of the perpetrator may be deduced before the story provides the revelation itself at its climax. The investigation is usually conducted by an eccentric, amateur, or semi-professional detective.
"Whodunit", written by Keni St. Lewis and Freddie Perren, was a hit song for R&B/disco group Tavares in 1977. Released from their album, Love Storm it spent one week at number one on the R&B singles chart in May 1977, and peaked at number twenty-two on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and in the UK peaked at number 5 the week ending 7 May 1977 where it stayed for 2 weeks [UK release Capitol CL 15914 Whodunit (St. Lewis / Perren) / Fool Of The Year (F Tavares / St. Lewis).] Whodunit was re-released in February 1986.
The lyrical hook to the song was the repeated query "Whodunit? / Who stole my baby?" The singer then appealed to a series of famous fictional detectives to help "solve" the case, including Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan, Ellery Queen, McCloud, Kojak, Baretta and Dirty Harry. The gimmick was reminiscent of " Searchin'", a 1957 single by The Coasters which also invoked a series of lawmen to track down a missing love interest.
A whodunit is a plot-driven story of the detective variety in which the puzzle is paramount.
Whodunit or Whodunnit may also refer to:
Usage examples of "whodunit".
Indeed, in her more straight-forward detective stories, Josephine Tey often reveals a sort of impatience with the rules and conventions of the whodunit.
We can guess that Tey would have written several more whodunits, but what she would have written is beyond our guesswork.
Disappointingly, the tantalizing whodunit is discarded before the one-third point, leaving only a psychological whydunit that might have been more intriguing before the market was flooded with serial killers, but consummate novelist Rendell can always keep you reading.
He sympathized particularly with a fat woman writer of whodunits, whose extremely unrealistic yet amazingly popular Gray Lensman hero had lived through ten full-length novels and twenty million copies.
Before Detroit native and longtime Boston resident Linda Barnes created her semi-tough female private eye Carlotta Carlyle, she worked as a theatre instructor and director in Massachusetts high schools and wrote two one-act plays and four whodunits featuring the actor-sleuth Michael Spraggue.
Stout's stories are always great mysteries – whodunits, howdunits, whydunits – and they zip along at a pace that would leave the Great Man anoxic.
Although I prefer the English whodunit variety, I have dipped into jaded private eyes, secret agents, and an occasional police procedural.
The storyline was transformed into a tame, conventional whodunit, with all too much footage devoted to pseudoprofound discussions about whether there's a scientific basis to ESP.