General Resources
The Dictionary of Crime Terms
Carl Sifakis
The Golden Age of Murder: the Mystery of the Writers who Invented the Modern Detective Story
Edwards, Martin.
Historical Dictionary of Crime Films
Geoff Mayer
The Private Eye: Detectives in the Movies
Bram Nicol..
Crime and Detective Fiction.
Rebecca Martin , Ed.
Critical Survey of Mystery and Detective Fiction. (5vols.) 3rd Ed.
Carl Rollyson, Ed.
Talking about Detective Fiction.
P. D. James.
The Crime Fiction Handbook.
Peter B. Messent
New Perspectives on detective fiction: mystery magnified
Casey A. Cothran and Mercy Cannon
The Poetics of Murder: Detective Fiction and Literary Theory
Glenn W. Most
Foul & Fair Play: Reading Genre in Classic Detective Fiction
Marty Roth
Detective fiction
Charles J. Rzepka
Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel
Julian Symons
British Crime Writing: An Encyclopedia. Barry Forshaw, Ed.
Crime Fiction
John Scaggs
Dictionary of British Literary Characters
John R. Greenfield, Ed.
Women, Oxford and novels of crime
Hoddinott, Alison
The Figure of the Detective: a Literary History and Analysis.
Charles Brownson
Great British Fictional Detectives.
Mystery & Suspense Writers: the Literature of Crime Detection and Espionage
Robin W. Winks & M. Corrigan, eds.
Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction
Martin Priestman ( also available online at http:
Victorian Crime, Madness and Sensation
Andrew Maunder and Grace Moore, Eds.
St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers
Jay P. Pederson and Taryn Benbow-Pfalzgraf, Eds.
The Detective Novels of Agatha Christie: A Readers Guide.
James Zemboy.
Murder Will Out: The Detective in Fiction
T. J. Binyon
History of Mystery
Collins, Max Allan.
Hardboiled Mystery Writers: Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Ross McDonald: A Literary Reference
Matthew J. Bruccoli and Richard Layman, eds.
Crime Fiction from Poe to the Present
Martin Priestman
Encyclopedia of Nordic Crime Fiction: Works and authors of Denmark,Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden since 1967
Mitzi M. Brunsdale.
Crime Fiction IV, a Comprehensive Bibliography 1749-2000
Allen J. Hubin
Reference and Research Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction
Richard Bleiler
Make Mine a Mystery II: a Reader's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction
Gary Warren Niebuhr
100 greatest literary detectives
Eric Sandberg ed.
Literary Criticism and Reviews Online Databases
UofT E-Resources http://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/
MLA International Bibliography.
This database indexes sources on literature from 1963 to the present.
ABELL (Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature).
Humanities Index, Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature and Essay and General Literature Index
will provide citations to literary criticism articles and book chapters.
Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature
continues Poole’s Index covering periodical literature from 1800 to present.
Literature Resource Center (LRC)
provides access to biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every age and literary discipline, with in-depth coverage of 2,500 of the most-studied authors.
MagillOnLiterature Plus
contains critical essays, plot summaries, character profilesfor 8,500+ long and short fiction writers. It also contains genre-driven essays with details about important literary genres and time periods.
Book Review Digest
provides citations and excerpts from reviews in popular journals, 1983 – the present. Book Review Digest Retrospective covers 1905-1982.
Arts & Humanities Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index
include citations of critical articles on popular culture, film and television. Online versions go back to 1982.
Online Reference Sources
(UofT e-Reference at http://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/eresources)
Literature Resource Centre
Contemporary Authors Online, (biographical coverage); Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, with entries on authors; and Dictionary of Literary Biography Online.
Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture, 1790-1920
materials supporting the study of nineteenth century history, law, literature, and criminal justice (including detective novels)
Electronic Books (Selected - UofT)
Look up titles in the Uof T catalogue to view full text of the following books
A Companion to Crime Fiction
Classic Crime and Suspense Writers
Harold Bloom
Crime Fiction
John Scaggs.
Traces development and change in the formal and thematic elements of the genre thru time.
Classic Mystery Writers
Harold Bloom.
Biographical, critical, and bibliographical info on the 13 most significant writers of mystery and detective fiction through the 1920s.
Murder by the Book
Sally R. Munt.
A critical overview of the wave of feminist crime novels which appeared in the 80s.
Gumshoe America : Hard-boiled Crime Fiction and the rise and Fall of New Deal Liberalism
Sean McCann.
Hardboiled & high heeled: the Woman Detective in Popular Culture