Many bibliographers focus on women who write. Lawyer Barnett looks at women who detect, at women as sleuths and at the evolving roles of women in professions and in society. Excellent for all women's studies programs as well as for the mystery hound.

Look at the popularity of such reading guides as Willetta Heising's Detecting Women (3rd ed. 0-9644593-7-X) or Amanda Cross' fiction (Honest Doubt 0-345-44011-0 11/00).

Reviews

"The amount of reading Ms. Barnett has done for these books boggles my mind. (Dare I say it is "incredible?") She discusses almost 700 series characters, with brief descriptions of virtually all their cases (over 3,000 titles) and succinct discussions of their personal lives and physical appearances.Barnett is careful not to give too much information regarding plot surprises and solutions.Prone to find errors in reference works, I was happily frustrated by the overall accuracy of Ms. Barnett's research and writing. This is a work that will need periodic updating, but for the periods covered in the two volumes, 1860-1989, Colleen Barnett has written the definitive work" --Deadly Pleasures

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"Barnett, a lawyer and teacher of political science, has collected mystery fiction with female protagonists for more than 20 years. Here she focuses on those protagonists instead of on female mystery writers…Barnett offers a unique and highly subjective approach to the genre. Recommended where there is an interest in 'mystery women' and for readers' advisory services." —Library Journal