A few tropes that always make me highly suspicious and usually turn out to signify the killer (don’t click spoilers if you don’t want to know which books have these tropes and who the killers are):
1. The book only has like 5 characters and one of them is the totally innocent helper who the main character depends on. Ex: >!Flicker in the Dark, literally knew from like page 30 it would be the brother!<
2. The book has a lot of characters which keeps you guessing, but one of them is mentioned just often enough that once all other options are eliminated near the end, you already know it has to be them. This one is super common and I don’t mind it as much although it still makes me disappointed when someone I suspected earlier actually does turn out to be the killer. Ex: >!His and Hers, the mom was one of my main suspects because there were a few odd things about her character.!<
3. One of the characters is highly suspect but dies, so I guess it can’t be them. Oh wait, they faked their own death too. To me this is basically cheating. Ex: >!And Then There Were None. I think about this way too much. The judge was crazy obvious!!!<
4. There’s one love interest already, then another one is introduced. Every single time this happens I know immediately that one of these people is the killer. There is simply no other reason this plot addition makes sense. Ex: >!Listen for the Lie, which I just finished. As soon as Emmett was a second love interest I thought it’s either him or the author is trying to throw me off.!<
There’s also a lot of other mystery tropes that are common but I don’t dislike — very last minute twist, killer is revealed and there’s a chase/fight scene, etc.
Sometimes it feels like I’ve read too many mysteries/thrillers and now I can guess the killer nearly every time. I really like the genre though, just wish some used these tropes to mislead readers rather than make what I consider clear signs.
by kristin137