Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27402
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27402
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

An unreliable narrator is one who knows the truth but doesn't reveal it to the reader. It sounds like your story has a narrator who does not, in fact, know the truth.

Dr. Watson is sometimes seen as an unreliable narrator of the Sherlock Holmes stories, because he deliberately hides or shades details from his readers. He alludes to the case of "the lighthouse, the politician, and the trained cormorant," and "the Giant Rat of Sumatra," saying the world is not yet prepared for such stories, and doesn't go into detail about why he and Holmes have to leave London for a few weeks in the summer of 1895. He also flat-out says that he's changing names and details to protect the identities of some clients.

In your story, Person A can't lie to the reader if A doesn't actually know that B is the murderer. It's _possible_ that A knows things which s/he is withholding from the reader, which C/D/E etc. would then bring up, but the reader would then have to see/hear that happening. If A is narrating, A has the "ability" to refuse to "tell" the reader what the other characters say. (If the story is just from A's POV but in third person, it's easier to determine if A is telling the truth or not.)

Original score: 0