The Perfect murder Book

This funny, breezy book about how to commit the perfect murder has now been out of print for over 20 years, and it deserves a second life as a reprint or (at the very least) an e-book. It would be really fun if it could be updated to include hot new crime authors like Gillian Flynn, Ken Bruen, or Megan Abbott.

The editor Jack Hitt starts things off by positing the character of a cuckolded husband Tim who wants to murder his wife, incriminate her lover, and then walk away with all her money. Tim is new to this sort of thing, an amateur with artistic aspirations, so he reaches out to five great mystery writers and asks their advice. The participating authors'Lawrence Block, Donald Westlake, Sarah Caudwell, Peter Lovesey, and Tony Hillerman--each get to contribute their plan of how to do the dastardly deed in the most flamboyant style possible. It's fascinating to see how each writer grabs hold of a different detail from the intro chapter and then spins it into a fiendish, outlandish murder scenario.

Caudwell's plan was the funniest, but Block's plan got my vote for most likely to work.

Each author gets to contribute a second essay attacking the weaknesses of everybody else's plans while arguing for the merits of their own. It's very tongue in cheek, of course, as the writers take merciless jabs at each other.

Lovesey gets a great zinger on Hillerman and Block, who both advocated a multiple-murder approach ala The ABC Murders: "We mystery writers were commissioned to suggest a way of killing your wife, not most of your neighbors as well. I do object to slaughter on this scale; some of the victims could be buyers of my books."

Block skewers the talents of his peers, saying "My first impulse, I must admit, was to toss out their contributions unread. I have for years been doing just that with their novels.

You can read this cover to cover in an hour or two. If you are a fan of any of these writers, you owe it to yourself to find this book and give it a go