Rating: 
Summary: Worth having in your mystery library
Review: Being a mystery fan, I like to know more than just the author's name or mystery's title before I dig in. This over-sized, informative book is more than I hoped for. I recommend it to all mystery fans, new and old. Each time you glance through it, you can't help but come away with something you didn't know before about the authors, their work, the mystery genre itself and what keeps it growing. Bruce F. Murphy has left no stone unturned; he has included everyone in the mystery field, not just the old classics or most popular.I really enjoy the non-fiction books that give us inside revelation to the whodunit genre. The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery is just that kind. It's more than a listing of authors and titles. Once you read the Preface explaining the triumph of the mystery story, you will enter into a book that lists mystery information in a dictionary/encyclopedia type style. You will find listings of authors, pseudonyms, titles, characters, poisons, mystery expressions, conventions, mystery awards, and more. It's great. It's an informative guide of well over 500 pages and worth every penny. If the cost is too much for your pocket book, I recommend the book clubs that are offering it a little cheaper.
Rating:
Summary: Worth having in your mystery library
Review: Being a mystery fan, I like to know more than just the author's name or mystery's title before I dig in. This over-sized, informative book is more than I hoped for. I recommend it to all mystery fans, new and old. Each time you glance through it, you can't help but come away with something you didn't know before about the authors, their work, the mystery genre itself and what keeps it growing. Bruce F. Murphy has left no stone unturned; he has included everyone in the mystery field, not just the old classics or most popular. I really enjoy the non-fiction books that give us inside revelation to the whodunit genre. The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery is just that kind. It's more than a listing of authors and titles. Once you read the Preface explaining the triumph of the mystery story, you will enter into a book that lists mystery information in a dictionary/encyclopedia type style. You will find listings of authors, pseudonyms, titles, characters, poisons, mystery expressions, conventions, mystery awards, and more. It's great. It's an informative guide of well over 500 pages and worth every penny. If the cost is too much for your pocket book, I recommend the book clubs that are offering it a little cheaper.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and informative
Review: Everyone seems to write that this book is "opinionated" but that's the essence of criticism, isn't it? I don't need a guide to mysteries that says that they're all great. Given the sea of mysteries in most book stores, it's helpful to have a guide that tells you which are good and which to avoid. I liked this book because it gives me real criticism, which I'm free to think about and agree or disagree with (which doesn't mean labeling the writer as "sexist" because he left out some women--he also left out new male writers too). It's not like Detecting Women or Detecting Men which mearly contain lists of writers, and give you no sense of who is worthwhile reading. I wouldn't sit down and read those books, while I have sat down and read Murphy's guide just for fun. His observations are entertaining and spirited. I have found myself getting so absorbed in them that I couldn't close the book. Murphy's book also gives the reader background on the authors, lots of interesting facts, and ideas of new books and authors to look for. It's clear that Murphy has read many, many mysteries and has thought deeply about them, and about the genre as a whole. I have found Murphy's guide preferable to DeAndrea's Encyclopedia Mysteriosa which contains a number of mistakes, including spelling Kinsey Millhone's name wrong. Moreover, Murphy's book can't really even be compared with something like DeAndrea's, which is not a work of real criticism. Mysteries, although some people wouldn't think of them as "serious" literature, can sometimes be sophisticated literary efforts. Given what seems to be an explosion in mystery publishing taking place around us, it is important to have a true critic (like Bruce Murphy) raising the level of mystery writing and reading.
Rating:
Summary: Finally the book I had been waiting for for years!
Review: Finally the book I had been waiting for for years! I am a great fan of mystery writing but I often found myself stuck without new good authors to explore. How to choose among the millions of titles? How to know if I will like them? The jacket often doesn't say much, and the praise bits are usually only a series of meaningless adjectives. What I wanted was a book of reviews, a critical work that would give me a clear opinion on this and that writer and would recommend his or her best books. The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery is exactly what I was looking for; for me it is the perfect mystery reader's companion. Before this encyclopedia all that was available were more or less comprehensive alphabetical lists of authors giving a short bio and maybe a rating, but nothing to make up your own mind, nothing to know what the author is really about, what his or her writing style is like, what are their preferred subjects and how they deal with them. Over the past few weeks I have read many of the pleasant short essays in the Encyclopedia and discovered several authors that I'm eager to know. I have also learned quite a few details about a number of specific novels that promise to be gripping. At least for a while, the specter of not having a mystery to read has been pushed away! I now have quite a reading list for the months to come, which also includes a mysterious writer from more than a century ago.... Thank you Mr.Murphy! Thank you for an opinionated book, there are too few of those around. I also want to add a short note in reference to a customer review I read here and which, I must confess, pushed me to write my own. It is ridiculous to say that this book is sexist. I only wish that some people who pretend to defend women would realize how much harm they do to the female part of humanity by uttering statements that present women as ridiculous fools. What is the standing of someone who reads only women authors BECAUSE they are women, and independently from the quality of their writing? Women do not only read cozy mysteries--nor do they necessarily write them! (Of course, if this reviewer had read more and different books he/she would have probably realized that. If he/she had read THIS book, instead of one by an unknown Mr.Taylor, she/he would realize it too). I am even more outraged by the reviewer's dismissal of the quality of the authors selected by Mr. Murphy: is the reviewer aware that many of them are women writers and that among them are some of the most outstanding mystery authors? What does he/she think of Margaret Millar, or Josephine Tey, or the new writer Dorothy Porter! All of them are reviewed in the Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery and justly--I think--given a great review. I am a woman and I am deeply offended by the chauvinistic undertones of that message, to the point that I wondered if it was written with the purpose of discrediting women.
Rating: 
Summary: Use with Caution
Review: I have enjoyed paging through Bruce Murphy's book, as I was looking for more up-to-date information than I had in my Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection by Steinbrunner and Penzler(1978? in paperback). I can understand someone having different taste. For example, I do not always agree with Julian Symonds in Bloody Murder, though I find I can agree with H.R.F.Keating's writings on mysteries. But for giving us the facts - booklists, dates, character information and adaptations - the Steinbrunner/Penzler book is very accurate. I wish it had been used as a foundation for the newer book. In Bruce Murphy's book, I find By the Pricking of My Thumbs left out of the paragraph about Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, (p. 36 of the pb). When writing of Charlotte MacLeod's pseudonym of Alisa Craig, Mr. Murphy makes a reference to an island, Ailsa Craig, to explain the name. Why stretch when there is an award winning onion named Alisa Craig, which *does* match her nom de plum, and fits in with her cozy country settings for the Craig stories? I also find Anne Perry completely missing. There are other little things that nagged at me. I prefer an encyclopedia to contain facts. There may be judgements regarding what to include, but I look for facts in the text. As there are mamy interesting entries in the book, I would still use it in conjuction with other reference books in the field. Use with caution. I'll keep my Steinbrunner and Penzler book.
Rating:
Summary: Applause !
Review: I really appreciated this book because it is far more than a mere listing of authors and titles. Applause for Bruce Murphy's, Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery! At last we mystery fans have a critical guide to the best in a genre offering an ever burgeoning selection of titles. Murphy's literary judgment is sound and his style very readable. Contains lots of fascinating mystery information not available elsewhere. Great reading.
Rating:
Summary: A Must for Mystery Readers
Review: If the mystery genre has lacked anything over the past century it's serious criticism. Aside from Jon L. Breen's reviews in Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine and Marilyn Stasio's pieces for the Times Book Review, mysteries have been virtually ignored by critics despite their permanent presence on bestseller lists. Bruce Murphy's The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery satisfies this need for insightful, intelligent commentary. Mr. Murphy provides a thorough analysis of mystery fiction from Edgar Allan Poe's Dupin to Bill Pronzini's nameless detective and even includes literary greats who have given the mystery a try-Jorge Louis Borges, William Faulkner, and Chester Himes to name a few. The mystery is also dealt with internationally through explorations of Manuel Vazquez Montalban, Paco Taibo, and Mario Vargas Llosa. Moreover, Mr. Murphy provides etymological histories of terms often encountered in the mystery novel and dispels common misconceptions readers have about the true purposes of agencies like INTERPOL. No subgenre is ignored: cozies, malice-domestics, psychological suspense, police procedurals, and the hard-boiled novel are all given equal attention. Brilliant, but forgotten crime writers like Charles Willeford, often ignored in other encyclopedias and bibliograpies, are finally given the respect they deserve. And cozy novelists Leo Bruce and Patricia Wentworth are rarely examined in the depth that they are here. Bruce Murphy's The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery is for every reader. Besides being comprehensive and informative, the book is just plain fun to read-a must for home libraries and coffee tables.
Rating:
Summary: Alas, Serious Mystery Criticism
Review: If the mystery genre has lacked anything over the past century it's serious criticism. Aside from Jon L. Breen's reviews in Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine and Marilyn Stasio's pieces for the Times Book Review, mysteries have been virtually ignored by critics despite their permanent presence on bestseller lists. Bruce Murphy's The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery satisfies this need for insightful, intelligent commentary. Mr. Murphy provides a thorough analysis of mystery fiction from Edgar Allan Poe's Dupin to Bill Pronzini's nameless detective and even includes literary greats who have given the mystery a try-Jorge Louis Borges, William Faulkner, and Chester Himes to name a few. The mystery is also dealt with internationally through explorations of Manuel Vazquez Montalban, Paco Taibo, and Mario Vargas Llosa. Moreover, Mr. Murphy provides etymological histories of terms often encountered in the mystery novel and dispels common misconceptions readers have about the true purposes of agencies like INTERPOL. No subgenre is ignored: cozies, malice-domestics, psychological suspense, police procedurals, and the hard-boiled novel are all given equal attention. Brilliant, but forgotten crime writers like Charles Willeford, often ignored in other encyclopedias and bibliograpies, are finally given the respect they deserve. And cozy novelists Leo Bruce and Patricia Wentworth are rarely examined in the depth that they are here. Bruce Murphy's The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery is for every reader. Besides being comprehensive and informative, the book is just plain fun to read-a must for home libraries and coffee tables.
Rating:
Summary: A Must for Mystery Readers
Review: Once you open it, you can't put it down. Murphy knows his stuff. Well edited.
Rating:
Summary: Buy It If You Love Mysteries
Review: This is a great book, full of interesting info and ideas. People who nitpick about the author's opinions miss the point--this is not a dry-as-dust reference book with lists of titles (though it does give you the stuff you expect out of an encyclopedia), but an engaging guide that will provoke you to think about what you like in a mystery and why. Instead of complaining that the author may be cool about your favorite author, be glad that he's giving you some credit for being intelligent, and inviting you into a conversation about writing. Not a lot of reference books do that!
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