In 1949, Japanese author Edogawa Rampo read John Dickson Carr’s “Locked Room Lecture,” and was inspired to create a comprehensive catalog of tricks from mystery fiction. To do so, he combined his existing collection of notes on British and American mystery novels with an ambitious short story reading project. He took notes on the contents of about a dozen Western short story collections, reread nearly every issue of the major Japanese mystery magazines, and supplemented his personal catalog with examples provided by enthusiasts from the Mystery Writer’s Club. In the end, he was able to divide the tricks from 821 different stories into over 100 different categories. Rampo’s original intention was to write a complete book according to his taxonomical scheme, with detailed discussions on the history and development of each trick. However, he ultimately did not have the time or inclination to reread every book, and so ended up publishing only a minimal skeleton. Nevertheless, “A Taxonomy of Tricks” is a uniquely comprehensive look on mystery fiction as it existed in mid-20th century Japan, and a treasure trove of information on the tricks used in golden age mysteries.