A+Murder+Is+Announced+As+a+Whodunit 

The Typical Setup of a Whodunit

 * 1. A state of peace before the crime or other problematic event occurs**
 * **Setting:** Chipping Cleghorn-
 * Small rural village in England
 * Neighbors are all relatively close
 * Setting for the majority of the scenes
 * Characters are first introduced in their homes doing whatever they usually do
 * Is the "typical small tight knit community" seen in most Whodunits


 * 2. The crime occurs and the false/initial clues are given**
 * **Initial Clues:**
 * The gunman opens the door, shines the flashlight around the room, shoots twice and then a third shot
 * The dead chrysanthemums
 * Mrs. Blacklock's Pearls
 * Mrs Blacklock's nicknames: "Letty" and "Lotty"


 * **Red Herrings:**
 * Mitzi's dramatic and very contradicting retelling of events
 * Rudi Scherz's police record


 * **Initial and incorrect reasoning for the crime:**
 * Rudi Scherz was mad that Mrs. Blacklock did not give him the money he asked her for when he came to her house that one day, and so he returned to her house weeks later and killed her


 * **Detective pursues this theory before changing his mind as he finds clues leading towards another possible (and most likely true) solution to the crime**
 * Inspector Craddock believes this theory, but is not satisfied with it. He stops believing this theory when he finds out about the oiled door to the drawing room


 * 3. The arrest (finding the bad guy/s) **
 * ** The detective and his assistants/aids go find the culprit **
 * Inspector Craddock goes to Milchester and explores Chipping Cleghorn looking for more clues
 * Miss Marple figures out the crime and has Fletcher help her catch the murderer


 * **The criminal commits another crime related to the main one**
 * Mrs. Blacklock admits to her crime while trying to drown Mitzi

4. **The crime is truly solved and the murder is found**
 * **The detective uses the evidence to get the criminal and put together a motive**
 * Mrs. Blacklock is the true killer (she admits to it)
 * Mrs. Letitia Blacklock is actually Charlotte Blacklock (the nicknames "Letty" and "Lotty", the pearls)
 * Miss Marple/Inspector Craddock explain the rest of the case, ties up loose ends


 * 5. Return to a state of peace**
 * **Everything returns to normal**
 * **Tone becomes neutral/content and is followed by lighthearted comedic ending**
 * Phillipa and Edmund are happily married
 * They return from their honeymoon and they are order newspapers. They choose not to get the Gazette (the paper that originally advertised for the announcement of the murder at Little Paddocks) and
 * The woman in charge of ordering the paper, Mrs. Totman is in disbelief that they wouldn't want to get the Gazette