Chapter 20: The Incompetence Alibi

And how to break it

Most alibis work by establishing the characters’ locations. The Incompetence Alibi is different. In this alibi type, the Villain works to establish that he was physically unable to commit the crime. There are a few different ways to do this, and in this chapter, we’ll go over all of them.

Time-Shifted Incompetence Alibi

We’ve already discussed time-shifted murders, in which the Villain takes action to change the characters’ perception of when the murder took place. This is done to make it appear that the murder happened within the window of the Villain’s alibi.

This is the same thing that happens with a time-shifted alibi, except, of course, in reverse.

Let’s see how this looks in one of Agatha Christie’s classics, Death on the Nile.