When plotting a murder (figuratively speaking), the mystery writer has at hand any number of M.O.s: the locked room, the unbreakable alibi, the double bluff, and the mistaken identity. Now, in Murderous Schemes, renowned mystery writers Donald E. Westlake and J. Madison Davis offer an illuminating look at eight such mystery conventions, illustrating each with four short stories written by some of the masters of the form, such as Dorothy L. Sayers, Chester Himes, Edward D. Hoch, and Lawrence Block, to name but a few.