Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Murderous Schemes

 

Murderous Schemes was edited by J. Madison Davis and the late, great Donald Westlake and published in 1998 by Oxford University Press. As Westlake notes in his introduction, "The major flaw with the genre under consideration is that no one knows quite what to call it." He himself prefers "detective story," and sets out to show why so many people fall under the spell of the genre, or as he adds, "What are these detective stories, that so enthrall people who should be spending their time on more worthy pursuits? What is this drug anyway?" The "worthy pursuits" quip follows after Westlake pokes fun at people who think worthwhile fiction can't be entertaining.


The anthology is organized into eight themes, including The Locked Room; Only One Among You; The Caper; The Armchair Detective; Come Into My Parlor; I Confess!; Hoist On Their Own Petards; and Over the Edge. Each section includes four short stories from many masters of the crime fiction genre, spanning the 150 years between Edgar Allan Poe and Lawrence Block. But there are some authors making an appearance who one doesn't always see in such anthologies, like Roald Dahl, Isak Dinesen, Jack London, and Damon Runyon.


The offerings include almost every style imaginable, from the hard-boiled detective story to the cozy armchair mystery to hints of horror. American and British authors are included, along with short biographies. As with most such works, there are hits and misses, but the clever idea of grouping the stories into the themes provides a fun  and—yes, entertaining—introduction to some of the common conventions in crime fiction.

Among the better-known names:  In "The Blue Geranium," Agatha Christie's Miss Marple solves a murder with only the clues of dinner conversation; Edward D. Hoch's "The Leopold Locked Room," centers on police captain Leopold who is found in a closed room with his murdered ex-wife; and in Lawrence Block's "Someday I'll Plant More Walnut Trees," a woman stays with an abusive husband, who insists he wants to change for the sake of their daughter.