All 5 Uses

motive
in
BoneMan's Daughters
(Auto-generated)

Motive?†
Chpt 4

motive = reason (for doing something)
It was a murder of detailed planning, and there was nothing on the Web to profile this level of intensity with an unclear motive.†
Chpt 4 *
We haven't been able to establish a single alibi for him in any of the cases; he had the opportunity, the motive, and now, if we're right, he's taken the district attorney.†
Chpt 25
Right circumstances, right motive, right everything, but wrong man.†
Chpt 30
The toolshed drawings of crucified skeletons had been withheld from the public, and they had shed some light on the killer's motive—this reasoning that BoneMan justified everything he did as a natural part of a worldview that rotated around God, Satan, and their battle over the children.†
Chpt 37

Definitions:

(1) (motive as in: What is her motive?)
a reason for doing something
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
Less commonly, motive can refer to something that causes motion in an inanimate object. Even less commonly, it can refer to a distinctive feature in music, art, or literature.