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The process of reasoning in which a conclusion follows clues from the premises presented.
Deduction
a plan made in secret by a group of people to do something illegal or harmful.
Plot
Alias
a false or assumed identity.
a person who has committed a crime.
Criminal
Alibi
a claim or piece of evidence that one was elsewhere when an act, typically a criminal one, is alleged to have taken place.
Refers to any type of figure of speech, theme, image, character, or plot element that is used many times in a genre.
Trope
a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for reasons of expediency.
Scape Goat
Scapegoat
a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for reasons of expediency.
a sudden, dramatic, and important discovery or development.
Breakthrough
a reason for doing something, especially one that is hidden or not obvious
Motive
Red Herring
to a misleading, or false, clue. It is a common literary device used in mysteries and thrillers that can lead readers down a false path or otherwise distract t
Sleuth
a person who investigates crimes; a detective.
Forensics
applying scientific principles and techniques to collect, examine, and analyze physical evidence of a crime.
a narrative device in which suggestions or warnings about events to come are dropped or planted.
Foreshadowing
a scene that takes place before a story begins. This interrupts the chronological order of the main narrative to take a reader back in time to the past events in a character's life.
Flashback
an uneasy feeling that a reader gets when they don't know what is going to happen next.
Suspense
