These 32 classic crime stories illuminate the genre's best-known plot constructions--including the locked room, the caper, hoist on their own petards, and over the edge. Covering over 150 years of crime and detective fiction, featuring styles from the hard-boiled to the cozy, Murderous Schemes profiles the writing of Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Rex Stout, Dorothy L. Sayers, Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and many others.