Detecting Women Pocket Guide: Checklist for Mystery Series Written by Women [Paperback]

Willetta L. Heising (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Willetta L. Heising's Detecting Women Pocket Guide (3rd edition) quickly insinuates itself into your reading life. Like a dictionary in a heated Scrabble game, its one of the first things to pull out of your purse or pocket when you enter a bookstore, get into a conversation about mystery novels, sit down to make a gift list (or a want list), or need to check any number of quick facts about your favorite author or novel. As a companion to the big reference work Detecting Women (and like its award-winning male counterpart, Detecting Men Pocket Guide, companion to Detecting Men), the book contains the essentials for the mystery traveler. The guide is organized alphabetically by author name, and then by each series character underneath. The books in each series are subsequently arranged by publication date and are followed by a white star for an award nomination and a black star for an award. In front of each listing are two check boxes to mark when purchasing, then reading, the book. While the Pocket Guide does not have all the biographical information and reference tools of the big book, it wouldn't fit in your pocket if it did. Nonetheless, Heising has crammed in 3,700 titles from over 800 series, and has added 200 new authors since the last edition. She even has several listings from not-yet-published books, and she has left blanks for collectors to fill in their own additions later on. If you are a serious reader of mysteries or a new fan of the genre, the Detecting Women Pocket Guide will prove an invaluable discovery machine for new authors and books and a ready reference when an acquisition is in hand. --Patrick O'Kelley

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Purple Moon Press; 3 Revised edition (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 096445937X
• ISBN-13: 978-0964459373
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #961,309 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great place to keep track of mystery reading, December 15, 1998

By 

Author Bill Peschel "Writers Gone Wild" (Hershey, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Detecting Women Pocket Guide: Checklist for Mystery Series Written by Women (Paperback)

It's indicative of the size of the mystery market that the third edition of this book - restricted solely to female writers with active series - still contains more than 3,700 titles in 224 pages. Editor Willetta Heising has gone to great lengths to improve the readability of the third edition of this pocketbook-sized reference work. Each author is listed along with the name of the series character, the list of books, their publication dates, and small stars indicating titles which were nominated or winners of the various mystery-related awards. Check boxes are included as well as space for writing in new entries. Note that this pocket-book sized version is meant to be used as a tickler when shopping for your next mystery. Look for the reference book of the same name for the large-format version, which contains a mini-biography of each writer and an extensive index of author's names, aliases, mystery locations, occupations and time periods.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for mystery readers, November 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Detecting Women Pocket Guide: Checklist for Mystery Series Written by Women (Paperback)

Following her magnificent "Detecting Women2" and "Detecting Men," Willetta Heising has written the third edition of Detecting Women. As of now, only the pocket guide is available. It lists living women authors of series in mystery fiction. The authors are alphabetical, the titles are chronological. It also has neat boxes for the owner of the book to check off books purchased and read to avoid those duplicate copies. Along with "Detecting Men", "Detecting Women" 3rd edition is a must-buy for all fans, librarians, book store owners, etc. Don't throw out "Detecting Women2" because that has deceased autors as well. If the mystery reading community were "in to" canonization, Ms. Heising would be St. Willetta.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 'must have' for every mystery reader, November 3, 1998

By 

[e-mail] Susan C. Eggers (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Detecting Women Pocket Guide: Checklist for Mystery Series Written by Women (Paperback)

I can't imagine not having the Detecting Women Pocket Guide in my library. To take that thought one step further, I can't imagine not having a copy in my purse at all times. Not only will it always come to my rescue when I find myself in the mystery section of the nearest bookstore without a clue as to which book in the series I should read next, it can help total strangers and store clerks. Too often past tiles are not listed in the front of the book and sometimes two books in the series were published in the same year. This handy pocket guide saves time and will save you money by keeping you from buying duplicates. When you have the book, check it off. Heard about the next to be published? Then write it in, space has been provided. Many times I have seen that puzzled look on the face of the person standing next to me, wondering which is the next in the series. Out comes the pocket guide to solve the puzzle.