Detecting Women Pocket Guide: Checklist for Mystery Series Written by Women
Willetta L. Heising'sDetecting 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 thebigreference workDetecting Women(and like  its award-winning male counterpart,Detecting Men Pocket  Guide, companion toDetecting 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 thePocket  Guidedoes 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, theDetecting Women  Pocket Guidewill prove an invaluable discovery machine for new authors  and books and a ready reference when an acquisition is in hand.--Patrick  O'Kelley