History Literature / AlmostPerfectCrimes

* ClockDiscrepancy: The main suspect in a murder case is being observed around the clock by police, but when a rookie forgets about daylight saving time and leaves his shift an hour early, the suspect isn't being monitored by anyone during that entire hour. [[spoiler: This proves to be a clue in the murder, when the victim's watch -- still on the wrist of his dead body -- is set at the correct time, proving that he was murdered after the clocks went back.]]

* ClockDiscrepancy: The main suspect in a murder case is being observed around the clock by police, but when a rookie forgets about daylight saving time and leaves his shift an hour early, the suspect isn't being monitored by anyone during that entire hour. [[spoiler: This proves to be a clue in the murder, when the victim's watch -- still on the wrist of his dead body -- is set at the correct time, proving that he was murdered after the clocks went back.]]

** In "The Flighty Freshman", a drunken fight over a girl led to the accidental death of one of the combatants. [[spoiler:Even worse, the killer was his ''brother'', and every indication is that the two were quite close. Now Danny Myers, who had his whole life ahead of him, has to spend the prime of his life in jail, and the rest of his life without his brother.]]

** "Last of the Royal Blood" tells the story of the last Shah of [[UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} Ibabi]].

* NeverSuicide: Played straight in several cases, particularly (as the name implies) "Swallowing the Gun" and "Psychic Suicide", where apparent suicides turn out to be murders. [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in [[spoiler:"The Phantom Intruder"]], where the victim killed himself and attempted to frame someone else for his own murder.

''Almost Perfect Crimes'' is a 1995 book of mystery short stories (or "mini-mysteries" as the book calls them) written by Hy Conrad. Each mystery consists of a body of text two pages long, an accompanying illustration by Lucy Corvino, and several categories appendices of "evidence" in the back pages, to represent the fruits of an investigation. The categories include affadavits (witness testimony), autopsy reports, crime scene reports, lab and hospital reports, miscellaneous examinations, searches, and research. These, taken together with the body of the text, provide the clues needed to solve each mystery. These is also an "analysis of evidence" section to compile the various appendices and thus provide "hints" to the reader to help solve the mystery. The author discourages this, outright stating that "good sleuths" should not need this section to solve the mysteries. Finally, the actual solutions, as in most mystery anthologies, are found in the section at the very end, ahead of the index.

* AlwaysMurder: Neither the title of the book nor the blurb at the back provide any hint that every single story is a murder investigation. [[spoiler: Multiple murders are set up to look like suicides, and one of the cases is about a suicide that is intended to look like a murder.]]

** The murderer in "The Flighty Freshman" frames the titular Perry Winkler for the murder of Donovan Myers. [[spoiler: Perry Winkler doesn't exist, he is a false identity assumed by the two Myers brothers, and it was the other brother, Danny, who killed Donovan.]]

* InheritanceMurder: One of the three brothers in "Manny, Moe, or Jack" kills his father Adolph Prep immediately after he (unwisely) announces that he is changing his will to disinherit them. As Adolph has not yet actually changed his will, he would have inherited his original share of the estate had he not been caught. [[spoiler: The murder in "The Bearded Lady" happens because the victim is blackmailing someone impersonating an heiress, and said "heiress" kills him to avoid the ruse being discovered.]]
* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Several of the killers, usually to cover up a relatively minor crime. Killing the blackmailer happens ''twice'' (in [[spoiler: "The Bearded Lady" and "Psychic Suicide"]]), as does killing to beat a rap for embezzlement (in [[spoiler: "How the Other Half Dies" and "Swallowing the Gun"]]). Probably the pettiest example is killing to ''protect an alibi'' (in [[spoiler: "The Show Girl Murders"]]), although to be fair in that case the killer was already on the hook for one homicide.
* NeverSuicide: Played straight in several cases, particularly (as the name implies) "Swallowing the Gun" and "Psychic Suicide", where apparent suicides turn out to be murders. [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in [[spoiler: "The Phantom Intruder"]], where the victim killed himself and attempted to frame someone else for his own murder.

** "Last of the Royal Blood" tells the story of the last Shah of [[UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} Ibabi]].
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Just one of the murder victims, Tracy Carlton in "How the Other Half Dies", is a woman.

''Almost Perfect Crimes'' is a book of mystery short stories (or "mini-mysteries" as the book calls them) written by Hy Conrad. Each mystery consists of a body of text two pages long, an accompanying illustration by Lucy Corvino, and several categories appendices of "evidence" in the back pages, to represent the fruits of an investigation. The categories include affadavits (witness testimony), autopsy reports, crime scene reports, lab and hospital reports, miscellaneous examinations, searches, and research. These, taken together with the body of the text, provide the clues needed to solve each mystery. These is also an "analysis of evidence" section to compile the various appendices and thus provide "hints" to the reader to help solve the mystery. The author discourages this, outright stating that "good sleuths" should not need this section to solve the mysteries. Finally, the actual solutions, as in most mystery anthologies, are found in the section at the very end, ahead of the index.

* DeadPersonImpersonation: Critical to the mystery of [[spoiler:"The Bearded Lady"]], where someone who died a long time ago is impersonated by a still-living relative.