All the tropes beneath are from the website tvtropes. I did not include all of them, just the ones I found interesting. Check out tropes for love and family as well.
Only smart people may pass: This refers to any barrier that requires the heroes to solve some kind of puzzle, riddle or test of skill in order to pass
Amnesiac hero: When the protagonist has amnesia.
Anachronistic clue: Something which can't come from the time period it supposedly came from, which is a sign something is amiss.
Anonymous Killer Narrator: When the serial killer is the narrator of the mystery story
Anomalous art: Works of art with mysterious properties
Bluffing the murderer: Someone is pretty sure who committed the crime, so they trick the criminal into revealing themselves
Conviction by contradiction: A mystery is solved by finding a hole in the perp's story, like a logic puzzle
Did not die this way: Someone lies about the cause of someone else's death
Everybody did it: All the suspects were responsible for the crime in some way
I never said it was poison: A character accidentally gives themselves away by revealing information that their knowledge of proves they are guilty
Ontological mystery: A story where the characters are locked somewhere and must find out how they got there, why, how to escape, and who (if anyone) is the cause of the situation
Public secret message: Sending a coded message to everyone because only the intended target of the message will understand the code
Signature item clue: A distinctive item means that someone must have put it there and that's a clue
Dream spying: A character dreams of something that is currently happening somewhere else
Riddle me this: In order for the characters to continue their journey, they need to solve another character's riddle first
Tour guide detective: Solving a mystery is used as a way to explore a setting
Red herring: A clue that leads in the wrong direction
Facade drop: A character lets go of their mask to show who they really are
Literal metaphor: The simple truth, mistaken for a metaphor
Decoy backstory: The backstory we were initially given for a character turns out to be untrue
Liar's paradox: A stock technique where a paradox is formed from statements where truth and lie simultaneously occur
Unusually uninteresting name: This innocent-sounding group are not a secret organisation of any sort. You won't even question their involvement or even notice their existence. The name is likely to be technically correct, though
Dark secret: Someone has a negative secret, which almost always leads to lying
Hidden in plain sight: Something is being searched for, and it turns out it was there the whole time but blended into the surroundings
Mystery magnet: Someone who coincidentally seems to attract mysteries
Not quite dead: Someone thought to be dead turns out to be still alive
My significance sense is tingling: Psychics can sense important stuff happening

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