One of the crucial parts of solving a crime is working out who had the opportunity to commit it. It’s not enough to have a motive for murder; one can’t kill someone if one doesn’t have the opportunity. That’s why police and other investigators pay a lot of attention to suspects’ alibis. Of course, alibis can be manufactured, and the police must check each alibi to see if it’s genuine. With all the importance of alibis, it’s no wonder we see so much discussion of them in crime fiction. There are many, many examples in the genre; here are just a few.

In Agatha Christie’s Five Little Pigs, Hercule Poirot is hired to solve the sixteen-year-old murder of famous painter Amyas Crale. At the time, his wife Caroline was arrested, tried, and convicted for the killing, and died in prison a year later. But her daughter Carla has always believed her mother was innocent. So, Poirot looks into the case. He interviews each of the five people who were present in the days up to and including the murder. He also gets a written account of the incident from each. As he does, we learn that more than one person had a strong motive for murder. So, the question becomes, who had the opportunity? And that means checking each person’s alibi and working out where each person was at the time Crale died. Little by little, Poirot discovers that someone’s alibi isn’t as strong as it seems…

As John Bude’s The Cornish Coast Mystery begins, Reverend Dodd, Vicar of St. Michael’s-on-the-Cliff, is having dinner with his old friend, Dr. Pendrill. Their evening is interrupted when Pendrill is summoned to the home of Julius Tregarthan. It seems that Tregarthan was shot through the window of his study, Pendrill can’t save him, so the police are called in to investigate this as murder. Pendrill and Dodd can’t help but take an interest in the matter, since both knew the victim, so they begin to ask questions of their own. Little by little, they learn that several people could have had a motive. His niece, Ruth, and her beau, Ronald Hardy, are very much in love, but Tregarthan was dead set against the match. Mrs. Cowper, the housekeeper, and her husband (who does general maintenance at the house) also could very well have had a motive. And there are several people town who could have wanted Tregarthan dead. The case comes down to working out who was where, who had a verified alibi, and who was doing what at the time of the murder.

In Cyril Hare’s Tenant For Death, Scotland Yard Inspector Mallett and his assistant, Detective-Sergeant (DS) Frant take on a bizarre case of murder. The body of Lionel Ballantine, a very successful business executive, has been discovered in the somewhat seedy home of Colin James, who seems to have gone missing. Now, the police have to find out who killed Ballantine and what has happened to James. They also have to find out how the two men might have been connected. As the story goes on, the detectives learn that a few people might have had a motive for murder. Colin James has disappeared, but he could have a motive. So could Ballantine’s mistress (or her husband). So could Ballantine’s wife. As the police sift through all of these clues, they try to establish who was where at the time of the murder, and which alibis are genuine. It’s a difficult case, but once the police track the alibis and put the pieces together, they’re able to work out the truth.

Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Case of the Horrified Heirs begins as a legal secretary called Virginia Baxter is arrested at the Los Angeles airport for having smuggled drugs. She says that she is innocent, and that the drugs were planted in her luggage, probably by her estranged husband. And that’s certainly possible. But, as you can imagine, the police don’t believe her. She hires Perry Mason to defend her. Of course, as Mason digs into the case, he wants to find out who would want to frame his client. As it turns out, Virginia Baxter is the only living witness who can vouch for the authenticity of the will of the very wealthy Lauretta Trent. Mason is working on this case when there’s an attempt on Lauretta Trent’s life. Then, her car goes over a cliff, presumably with her in it. Now it’s a case of murder, and Virginia is the prime suspect. She doesn’t have a reliable alibi, and she does have a motive, since she’d recently been coerced into creating a forged will for Lauretta. There are other suspects, though, so if he’s going to clear his client’s name, Mason will have to find out where each suspect was, and what each was really doing at the time the car went over the cliff. Timing and alibis matter in this story.

And then there’s Donna Morrissey’s The Fortunate Brother. In that novel, Sylvanus Now, his wife Addie, their son Kyle, and their daughter Sylvie, are coping with the death of Sylvanus and Addie’s older son Chris, who was killed in a terrible oil rig accident. They’re struggling, but they are trying to get through everything. Then, there’s a murder in the small Newfoundland town where they live. A local bully named Clar Gillard is killed, and the police find no shortage of suspects. The victim abused his wife, Bonnie, and was malicious and abusive towards other people in the town, too. In fact, Sylvanus, Addie, and Kyle all become suspects. As the police investigate, they have to work out where each person was, and what each was doing when Gillard was killed. As the investigation continues, we learn some hidden truths. As they come out, the Now family starts the process of healing.

The question of who was where, doing what, at the time of a murder is crucial. And the stronger motive a person has, the more closely investigators look at that person as a suspect. So alibis can be central to a case. It’s no wonder they matter in crime fiction, too.

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Billy Joel’s Great Wall of China.