Mauro V. Corvasce is a longtime American police detective and co-author of two Writer's Digest Howdunit titles that remain go-to references for crime and mystery novelists: Modus Operandi: A Writer's Guide to How Criminals Work (1995) and Murder One: A Writer's Guide to Homicide (1997), both co-written with fellow detective Joseph R. Paglino. The books draw directly on the co-authors' working caseload as New Jersey detectives investigating major crime.
Modus Operandi covers the working reality of crimes mystery writers most often get wrong: how killers, armed robbers, arsonists, smugglers, safecrackers, counterfeiters, forgers, white-collar criminals, and con artists actually carry out their work, what evidence they leave behind, the psychology that drives them, the slang they use, and the techniques investigators use to catch them. Murder One narrows that focus to homicide and walks the writer through every category, from familial murder set off by years of feud, to gang murder, contract killing, drive-by shootings, business and financial murder targeting whistleblowers, organized crime hits, vehicular murder, crimes of passion, and the bizarre and unusual homicides drawn from real cases. The book covers legal definitions, the homicide investigation process, opportunity, weapons, kidnapping, and cover-up crimes.
As detectives, Corvasce and Paglino worked the kind of casework that gives the books their authority. Corvasce's investigative career includes work on high-profile cases involving serial killer Richard Biegenwald and the so-called Prom Mom case of Melissa Drexler, the New Jersey teenager convicted in the delivery and killing of her newborn at her senior prom. Their Howdunit volumes have remained in print for three decades and continue to be cited in crime writing programs and conference reading lists.
