Definition of "whydunit" [whydunit]

• A type of detective story in which the focus is not on who committed the crime, but what were their motives for committing it. (noun)

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• "From Hell, a book designed to not be a "whodunit," but to be a "whydunit" and explore the London around the Jack the Ripper crimes, the mentality of the killer, the reactions, an exploration of violence, and of many other things."
• "In the introduction to this collection Gregory Shepard claims that Holding was among the first crime writers to ask not so much whodunit as whydunit, which made her the precursor of the woman's psychological suspense novel and forerunner to Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell."
• "Sometimes I go back and pick up where I left off for the whydunit or howdunit."