howcatchem

Definitions

noun A mystery novel or drama which begins by showing or describing the commission of the crime, generally revealing the perpetrator's identity to the audience, then shows or describes how the detective proves the perpetrator's guilt.

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A howcatchem (also called a howdunit, reverse whodunit, or inverted detective story) is the complete opposite of the whodunit, a type of detective story where the ultimate goal is discovering who’s guilty of the crime.

The Howcatchem: An Inverted Detective Story - killerthrillers.net Cole Salao 2021
Poker Face is not a whodunnit, but what Johnson calls a “howcatchem”: a crime-first, solution-later structure in the vein of meat-and-potatoes procedurals like Columbo – except in Poker Face, the guest star of the week could be Nick Nolte or Sevigny.

‘I’m going to start a cult. That’s the long game!’ Natasha Lyonne on crime, crosswords and Macaulay Culkin Sian Cain 2024