title: The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing
author:  Rosemary Herbert 
description: <B>Penzler Pick, <a href="/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/33102/${0}">April 2000</a>:</B> Over the years, there have been quite a few reference books in the mystery genre arranged as dictionaries, encyclopedias, companions, and so on. (I coauthored two of them, so I know what goes into their production.) Rosemary Herbert's <i>Companion</i> differs from many others in at least two ways: first, she did not write it but rather edited the work of numerous well-known mystery scholars and academics, each of whom presumably has some expertise in the subjects they wrote about; and second, there are as many articles devoted to umbrella subjects (eccentrics, elderly sleuths, English village milieu, and escapism, to open the book at random) as to authors and characters. It is an interesting way to arrange a reference book and more fun to read than the potted author biographies in similar works, but it seems to be less useful as a reference tool than those works.
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  THE
  
  
  GUILTY
  
  
  MAN
  
  
  
  
  
  An absolutely gripping crime mystery with a massive twist
  
  
  
  
  
  Detectives Lennox & Wilde Thrillers Book 1
  
  
  
  
  
  HELEN H. DURRANT
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![C:\\Users\\jasper joffe\\Downloads\\good circle
  logo.jpg](../images/00001.jpeg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  First published in Great Britain 2020
  
  
  Joffe Books, London
  
  
  www.joffebooks.com
  
  
  
  
  
  © Helen H. Durrant
  
  
  
  
  
  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations,
  places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are
  used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events
  or locales is entirely coincidental. The spelling used is British English
  except where fidelity to the author’s rendering of accent or dialect
  supersedes this. The right of Helen H. Durrant to be identified as author of
  this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
  Patents Act 1988.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Please join our mailing list for 