Conspiracy Thriller
A Thriller centered on the conflict between The Protagonist and The Conspiracy, often with an elaborate Conspiracy Theory as the background.
The story starts off with either a minor meaningless crime or a high-profile murder. A person related to the criminal blamed or the uncovered victim notices some odd discrepancies in the official story and digs deeper. Before the protagonist realizes it, he/she/it are caught in a multi-layered plot that involves possibly EVERYONE, especially those who are tasked with the official investigation... meaning that the hero/heroine can't go to the cops... or the press... or that janitor in the hallway they just passed who looks a little too much like the guy who'd been shadowing them the last day or so...
See also So You Want To: Write A Conspiracy Theory.
- All the President's Men: Practically the Trope Codifier. Making it worse is that it really happened: Watergate.
- Conspiracy Theory
- The Da Vinci Code
- Enemy of the State
- Hidden Agenda
- The Manchurian Candidate
- The Parallax View
- Three Days of the Condor
- Deus Ex