Citations:howcatchem

Noun: "a mystery novel or drama which begins by showing or describing the commission of the crime..."

 * 1979 — LeRoy Lad Panek, Watteu's Shepherds: The Detective Novel in Britain, 1914-1940, Bowling Green University Popular Press (1979), ISBN 9780879721312, page 204:
 * For instance Philip MacDonald notes that his novel dealing with mass murder, Murder Gone Mad (1931), is not a "whoduneit" but a "howcatchem."
 * 1987 — The Baker Street Dozen (eds. Pj Doyle & E. W. McDiarmid), Congdon & Weed (1987), ISBN 9780865531871, page 143:
 * "The Empty House" is primarily a howcatchem; or rather, it is a howcatchem that takes off from and returns to a whodunit.
 * 1993 — Mystery Writer's Market Place and Sourcebook (ed. Donna Collingwood), F & W Publications Inc. (1993), ISBN 9780898796124, page 171:
 * Although he admits to preferring the hard-boiled mystery himself, he says Walker's mainstay today is the same as it was in 1959 — "the vast majority of the mysteries we publish are pure puzzles, procedural P.I.s or amateur sleuths. Every once in a while I'll look for suspense — not a whodunit but a howcatchem."
 * 1993 — "Just One More Thing: 'Columbo' Remains Falk's Forte", Daily News of Los Angeles, 29 October 1993:
 * This "howcatchem" (as opposed to whodunnit) edition of "Columbo" guest stars Faye Dunaway, whose new CBS comedy "It Had to Be You" was recently shelved after just four weeks.
 * 2002 — Marc Robinson, Brought to You in Living Color: 75 Years of Great Moments in Television & Radio from NBC, John Wiley & Sons (2002), ISBN 9780471090168:
 * Columbo was not so much a whodunit as it was a "howcatchem" — the fun was in watching Columbo corner the murderer, and we never tired of the game.