Amazon.com Review
Willetta L. Heising's follow-up volume to her popular
Detecting Women is an invaluable tool for serious mystery readers. No other resource provides as much contemporary information about detective fiction written by women: over 600 series characters, over 3,400 titles (in series order), and seven different indexes to sift through all of the information. The first 200 pages of the book are devoted to alphabetical author listings. Each author's name is followed by a brief biography and capsule description of her series. The series book list follows the short blurb. The lists include the main detective character's name and then each book title in the series along with dates of publication. Two check boxes in front of each numbered entry allow the user to check off for ownership and reading of the title in question; books nominated or receiving awards are followed by a star.
Detecting Women 2 also has several valuable search tools in the final third of the book. For example, you can look up your preferred mystery setting and find all the series that take place in that city/country. The "Mystery Chronology" offers a decade by decade tracing of dates of publication and includes an indication of the first mysteries in each series. A list of pseudonyms will help readers track down all mysteries by their most beloved authors. Finally, in addition to the standard mystery book glossary and list of awards, Heising has assembled a grid that diagrams the short story anthology appearances of 188 of her authors. While the word "essential" is overused in describing reference books, this book (with its companions
Detecting Men and the pocket guides
Detecting Women, 3rd edition, and
Detecting Men) truly is essential for committed readers; it is a guide to a lifetime of reading and a fitting homage to the expanding contribution of female writers to crime fiction.
--Patrick O'Kelley
Chronicling mystery series written by women, this successor to a volume published in 1994 contains a master list of more than 500 authors, more than 675 series characters, and nearly 3,600 titles. The author, an avid mystery reader herself, has turned an avocation into a career with forthcoming volumes on detecting men and kids (books for young adults).
The major portion of this oversize volume is a master list arranged alphabetically by author name, including a short biography and bibliography in narrative form for each writer. The primary detective in each series is briefly identified. Dorothy Gilman's Emily Polifax is described as a "New Jersey grandmother and CIA agent," for example. Titles in each series are listed by publication date, and awards won are noted where appropriate. Their place in the series is indicated by a numeral found next to boxes that are meant to be used as a checklist.
The rest of the book arranges the information from the master list in different categories. Readers can search by mystery type (police procedural, amateurs, or private investigators), character, setting, title, or author pseudonym. The volume also includes a chronology of mysteries by decade. It is interesting to see the increase in female mystery writers over the years. Heising also lists 25 short story anthologies, awards and organizations, other resources such as reference books and periodicals, concluding the text with a glossary, a bibliography, and an index.
Detecting Women 2 Pocket Guide ($14.95, 0-9644593-2-9) is a list of authors, characters, and titles intended as a handy reference source for trips to the bookstore or library. Since both volumes are organized as checklists, they are most useful for home use. Public libraries with ample mystery circulation might find the larger volume useful for collection development or patron browsing. The second edition of By a Woman's Hand: A Guide to Mystery Fiction by Women (Berkley, Sept_. 1996, paper, $12, 0-425-15472-6) covers more than 300 writers but does not include complete lists of their works. The first edition of this book was reviewed here [RBB Je 1 & 15 94].
