Detecting Women [Paperback]

Willetta L. Heising (Author)

Book Description

Series: Detecting Women | Publication Date: 1999

Very good condition. 3rd Edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The number of women writing mysteries continues to grow, as this volume attests. Following up on the success of Detecting Women (1995) and Detecting Women 2 [RBB Jl 96] (which Bleiler calls "a monumental achievement)," the guide now covers approximately 4,000 titles in 815 mystery series written by 690 women who were alive in 1998. Alphabetically arranged author entries are provided in the "Master List," each including a brief overview and a list of series characters and titles. The 225 authors who are new to this edition are identified; they include Ann Livesay, a geologist whose series is set in such exotic locales as the Amazon and the Great Barrier Reef; Sujata Massey, whose award-winning first novel, The Salaryman's Wife (1997), introduced a series featuring a Japanese American antiques dealer; and Caroline Rowe, whose detective is a "1350s blind physician and bishop" in Spain. Information is quite current, even covering some new books and series planned for 2000 and 2001, although Ruth Rendell's 1999 Inspector Wexford mystery Harm Done is not here.

The Master List is followed by indexes of mystery types, characters, and settings. A title chronology groups books by publication year, beginning in the 1940s. There are also an alphabetical list of titles, a guide to pseudonyms, a list of awards, a bibliography, and a general index. Appendixes list authors who were dropped (primarily because they have died) and titles that have been eliminated because they are not part of a series or were never published, among other reasons. This volume provides the most comprehensive coverage by far of contemporary women mystery writers. A companion, Detecting Men, was published in 1998 [RBB Ap 15 98].
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Detecting Women is beautifully designed and laid out and comes in hardcover, so it stands proud on your shelf, ready at hand. I suppose someone could put all this on a CD-ROM that offers a complete search function, but I can't imagine why. It would work just as well as the book, but denies the reader the pleasure of spinning the pages and discovering new authors by accident. -- The Rock Hill, SC, Herald, Bill Peschel

Detecting Women is definitely on the case when it comes to the mystery genre. Mini-biographies featuring tidbits about nearly 700 of today's women mystery authors make it as interesting as a well-plotted mystery. -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Oline Cogdell

Do we even have to tell you how useful this book is? If you're a die-hard fan or a mystery newbie, you need this book. With 225 new authors, you have a lot to learn, and a lot of reading to catch up on. -- Lambda Book Report, Deborah Peifer

Willetta L. Heising's indispensable guide (also available in hardcover and pocket guide editions) and its companion, Detecting Men, have become as important a part of my social baggage as the Internet Movie Database, and all are equally effective in putting pompous quasi-experts in their place. -- Chicago Tribune, Dick Adler

You'll be happy to learn that the answers to just about any question you might have involving crime fiction penned by living women are to be found in the new edition of Detecting Women, a remarkable reader's guide. -- The Los Angeles Times, Dick Lochte --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Purple Moon Press; 3 edition (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964459361
• ISBN-13: 978-0964459366
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,497,461 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must for Mystery Readers, January 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Detecting Women: A Reader's Guide and Checklist for Mystery Series Written by Women (Detecting Women: A Reader's Guide & Checklist for Mystery Series Written by Women) (Hardcover)

If you are a enthusiastic reader of mysteries, you really cannot afford to be without the new DETECTING WOMEN, 3rd edition. Everything you ever wanted to know about women who solve mysteries is within these pages. Just reading them through is a delightful way to spend some time. New authors are included, 225 of them. There is a Master List of all the living authors writing series with women as protagonists. Those books that were nominated or won a major award are distinguished so if you want to read all the winners, you can. But a list of writers and books is just the beginning. Next Heising has divided all the series into four basic groups, police procedurals, private eye novels, espionage and t traditional mysteries featuring amateur detectives. Every author in the book is listed in one of these categories, subdivided even further. If you know the character's name, but not the authors you can cross-reference that in this book. If you are interested in books in specific settings, you will find these authors divided into settings. There is still more, a chronological list of all the novels mentioned and an alphabetical list of titles. A discussion of pseudonyms follows and then a list of mystery book awards, nominees and winners.

It is simply a phenomenal book containing information cross-referenced in every possible way. If, like me, you prefer to read series in order, you don't have to beg your friends to find out; you just look it up in DETECTING WOMEN. If you are visiting someplace new and would like to either read some mysteries that are set in that place or take some with you to read while you are there, here is where you find that information. If you only want to read books about women army officers solving crimes in Thailand, you can find all the books written about that subject. Truly I do not see how anyone who loves mysteries can do without this extremely valuable reference!

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why the mystery reader can't be without this book., August 9, 1998

By 

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

This review is from: Detecting Women: A Reader's Guide and Checklist for Mystery Series Written by Women (Detecting Women: A Reader's Guide & Checklist for Mystery Series Written by Women) (Hardcover)

At last mystery readers have a source of information regarding series. How many times have you found yourself wanting to read a series in order but you haven't a clue which book came first and neither does the book store clerk? You have found number 3 in the series but it has no listing of the previous titles? Are you taking a vacation to Greece and you want to read some mysteries set there? This is the book for you. As long as the series was written by a woman, all the information is at your fingertips in this book. Not only will it help with authors you already know about, it will introduce you to many new ones. No mystery reader should be without this volume as well as the Pocket Guides to both Detecting Women and Detecting Men and its Pocket Guide.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must for Series Readers!, February 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Detecting Women: A Reader's Guide and Checklist for Mystery Series Written by Women (Detecting Women: A Reader's Guide & Checklist for Mystery Series Written by Women) (Hardcover)

I can only emphatically agree with the other reviews here that Willetta Heising's work is a incredibly detailed and accurate labor of love no series mystery fan will want to be without. In addition to being an invaluable reference work, it is also just a fun book to browse in. For instance, it's perfect for those times when you're lookingfor a new series to begin reading. Not only are all the author's books listed, but some bibliographical information about her as well, along with a capsule description of the main characters and feel of the series. The appendices, which list authors/titles dropped from the previous edition and corrections to the pocket guide, are also very useful for record-keeping readers. All in all, an absolutely great book. How did I ever manage before I had it?