Detective and Mystery Fiction

At one time, Mickey Spillane had authored seven of the top ten bestsellers in history, and may have been the most widely read author in the world. Spillane masterful storytelling grabs his readers with his first paragraph and leads them spellbound toward his climax. Along with Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Ross Macdonald, he remains one of America's greatest mystery writers. This book is a convenient guide to his works. An opening chronology lists the chief events in his life and career. The bulk of the volume presents several hundred alphabetically arranged entries on his writings. Lengthier entries summarize the plots of his works, including I, the Jury; My Gun Is Quick; Vengeance Is Mine!; and The Long Wait. Shorter entries identify his numerous characters, including his particularly memorable detective, Mike Hammer. Select entries list works for further reading, and the volume concludes with a brief bibliography.

Many bibliographers focus on women who write. Lawyer Barnett looks at women who detect, at women as sleuths and at the evolving roles of women in professions and in society. Excellent for all women's studies programs as well as for the mystery hound.

This new edition of Bleiler's popular and award-winning guide is a superb reference and research tool, as well as an invaluable aid to collection development. Evaluative reviews of approximately 1,000 reference works on mystery and detective fiction provide in-depth discussions of their contents, strengths, weaknesses, and usefulness, often comparing titles to similar or competing works. Encyclopedias, biographical dictionaries, genre guides, national bibliographies, media studies, general reader's guides, web sites, and organizations are just some of the information sources covered in this thorough source. All annotations from the previous edition have been reviewed, revised, and updated; and complete critical reviews of works published since the last edition have been added, including titles released in the present year (2003). More than one third of monographic citations are new to this edition. In a feature new to this edition, Bleiler indexes reference works that provide biographical information on mystery writers, and lists the key websites on these authors. More than 2,500 bio-bibliographic citations to individual mystery writers are given-information that will be particularly useful to those researching specific authors. Organized by publication type for easy access, this work also features a detailed index, making it an essential guide for scholars, researchers, educators, readers' advisors, reference librarians, collection development specialists, and fans.

Covering a broad spectrum of primary and secondary reference resources about mystery and detective fiction, this annotated bibliography focuses on all print and key electronic sources in the field that are produced in English. Organized thematically, it reviews encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, annotated guides, bibliographies, bio-bibliographies, vade mecums, compendiums, indexes, and so on. Many Web sites are also described. Lengthy, informed reviews often provide evaluative information and compare books to similar or related titles. Essential to researchers, this is a valuable guide for any collection that holds a substantial number of mystery and detective titles, including college, university, public, and some high school libraries.