Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia Mysteriosa: A Comprehensive Guide to the Art of Detection in Print, Film, Radio, and Television

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This book, a spiritual successor to the Penzler/Steinbrenner "Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection" volume, is an admirable and successful effort to provide a one volume, non-bulky reference to the mystery field in all its facets. I found especially valuable the entries for the TV shows, and as a result ordered the Columbia House VHS editions of shows like Hawaii Five-O and Murder, She Wrote with satisfaction. Although such a slim volume can hardly be fully encyclopedic, "Encyclopedia Mysteriosa" does very well, providing tons of biographical and bibliographical information up to the early 1990s. The current encyclopedia by Murphy, which I recently ordered, will have a tough act to follow. No mystery aficionado should be without the DeAndrea book

The book includes comprehensive entries on authors, books, shows, and characters. Inevitably, it omits some characters and authors, but it gives an workmanlike account of the chosen subjects. I particularly liked the entries on the pioneers of the mystery format.

As somewhat of a newcomer to mystery fiction, I'd like to have seen entries on the various plot devices and motifs of mystery fiction. I looked in vain for entries on such subjects as "drawing room mystery," "locked room mystery," "fair-play mystery," and numerous others. The work discusses all these subjects in the context of entries on authors, books, and shows, but you have to search to learn about them.

The encyclopedia does have several sidebars (set off in borders) on such subjects as "hard boiled detectives," "dime novels," "Sherlockiana," and the like. The sidebars are well done, but I'd like to have seen more.

This awarding winning reference is a must for casual readers and collectors. The content is rich and the extended essays are useful.