Compression does lead to some eyebrow-raising descriptions, especially in the cross-genre section, which lists characters Kevin Bradley (daemon art recovery specialist), Jack Fleming (30s reporter turned vampire), David Silver & String (homicide cop & alien partner) and Rosie Lavine (private eye to the elf world).

And I forgot to mention that 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.

Just at hand, for example, is an entry on British author Lauren Henderson, whose third and fourth books about sculptor Samantha Jones were published in this country. Who could resist looking into an author described by one Brit paper as “the dominatrix of the British crime scene?”

In addition to Detecting Women, Purple Moon Press also publishes Detecting Men, which covers currently published male authors. Both books are vital resources for the mystery-loving reader.

--William Peschel