whydunit

English

Alternative forms

Noun

whydunit (plural whydunits)

  1. A type of detective story in which the focus is not on who committed the crime, but what were their motives for committing it.
    • 1985, Laurence Urdang, Walter W. Hunsinger, Nancy LaRoche, Picturesque expressions: a thematic dictionary‎, page 420:
      Connery takes over the interrogation and in the process beats the man to death. This much we know almost from the beginning, so the film is less of a whodunit than a whydunit.
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