• Breen, Jon, and Martin Harry Greenberg, editors,
  Murder Off the Rack: Critical Studies of Ten Paperback Masters....Buy this book
  Scarecrow Press, 1989.
  Essays on paperback writers Ed Lacy, Vin Packer, Jim Thompson, Harry Whittington, Marvin H. Albert, Charles Williams, Donald Hamilton, Peter Rabe, The Executioner series and Warren Murphy by people like Ed Gorman, Dick Lochte, Bill Crider, Marvin Lachman, Max Allan Collins, George Kelley, Loren D. Estleman and Donald E. Westlake. At just 188 pages, it's a pretty short book, appropriately enough about the length of a Gold Medal original. So, if you're looking for lots of pages for your dough, this ain't the book to buy, but rest assured you'll get plenty of bang for your buck.
  ..
• Cole, Catherine,
  Private Dicks and Feisty Chicks: An Interrogation of Crime Fiction
  Fremantle Arts Centre Press, in partnership with Curtin University of Technology,2004.
  This academic monograph examines the continuing popularity of crime fiction and investigates its on-going relevance, ranging from socio-economic, feminist, moral and political concerns, but also gets down and dirty (and a lot more fun) when it looks into why some books work and some don't and the origin of the term "red herring." What might have been a dry, crusty read is enlivened by a breezy style, shaped no doubt by the author's own enthusiasm for the subject. Dr. Cole, a writer and lecturer in the Writing and Cultural Studies Area at the University of Technology (Sydney) is not just an addict but a dealer as well -- she's the author of the Nicola Sharpe P.I. series.
  
  
• Cortez, Sarah, and Liz Martinez, editors
  Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery.. Buy this book
  Arte Público Press, 2009.
  A collection of short fiction by Latino mystery writers, supposedly the first such collection ever, with contributions from Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Rolando Hinojosa, Steven Torres, A.E. Roman, Manuel Ramos and others.
  A.E. Roman's smart-ass New York City PI, Chico Santana, gets a nice lead-in to his debut novel, Chinatown Angel (Reviews, Jan. 12), in a tale of revenge, Under the Bridge. While Lucha Corpi's Hollow Point at the Synapses may be the first story told from the perspective of a bullet traveling from a sniper's rifle to the target's head, that novelty comes across more gimmicky than clever. Other contributors include such established writers in the genre as Mario Acevedo, Carolina García-Aguilera and Steve Torres. (Mar.)
  Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
  
  Product Description
  In Lucha Corpi's story, ''Hollow Point at the Synapses,'' her unique narrator a bullet describes the instant before killing a young Peruvian woman: ''I feel the pull of the hammer. The pressure mounts. I am now in place. The moment is upon me. Swiftly and efficiently, I will do what I must, what I was created for. In an instant, I am off, traveling at a speed reserved only for death.''
  This groundbreaking anthology of short fiction by Latino mystery writers, Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery, features an intriguing and unpredictable cast of sleuths, murderers and crime victims. Reflecting the authors' and society's preoccupation with identity, self, and territory, the stories run the gamut of the mystery genre, from traditional to noir, from the private investigator to the police procedural, and even a ''chick lit'' mystery.
  ''The Right Profile'' features a Miami private investigator who goes undercover to prove a deadbeat father can pay child support, and she delights in testifying against him in court. In ''The Skull of Pancho Villa,'' someone has stolen the family heirloom and it's up to Gus Corral to get it back. And in ''A New York Chicano,'' a successful bachelor from El Paso a graduate of NYU working for Merrill Lynch in Manhattan gets his revenge against a xenophobic newscaster.
  Hit List collects for the first time short fiction by many of the Latino authors who have been pioneers in the mystery genre, using it to showcase their unique cultures, neighborhoods and realities. Contributors include award-winning writers such as Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Rolando Hinojosa, Manuel Ramos and Sergio Troncoso, as well as emerging writers who deserve more recognition.
  
  
• Crider, Allen Billy, ed.
  Mass Market Publishing in America.
  Boston: G.K. Hall, 1982.
  .
• Haut, Woody,
  Pulp Culture: Hardboiled Fiction and the Cold War....Buy this book
  1996.
  Actually, Haut's titles are a bit misleading. This one refers to the paperback originals that took the place of pulp magazines in the period from 1945 to 1963, and the follow-up, Neon Noir, likewise, has more to do with literature than film. Still, his contention that hardboiled fiction has been neglected by serious literary criticism "precisely because it is a class-based literature,'' is an intriguing one. Haut brings politics to the table, and holds forth on how these books, focussing on how "capitalism's relationship to crime, corruption, desire and power,'' managed to reflect the darkness of 1950's. He doesn't offer much new on Raymond Chandler, Chester Himes, Ross Macdonald, Jim Thompson, or Mickey Spillane, but he shines when he discusses more neglected writers like Leigh Brackett, Dolores Hitchens, Dorothy B. Hughes, William McGivern, Gil Brewer, Lionel White, Charles Williams and Charles Willeford.
  
  
• Haut, Woody,
  Neon Noir: Hardboiled Films and Fiction from the 1960's to the Present....Buy this book
  London: Serpent's Tail, 1999.
  The sequel to Haut's acclaimed Pulp Culture. File this one under Performing Arts/Dance; Film Noir; Arts In General (Multi- Subject); Pop Arts / Pop Culture; Performing Arts; Film - History & Criticism; Mystery & Detective Literature- Hard-Boiled; History & Criticism and all that other good stuff. What's happened to crime fiction since the fifties.
  .
• Heising, Willetta L.,
  Detecting Men:
  A Reader's Guide and Checklist for Mystery Series Written by Men
  Ann Arbor, Michigan: Purple Moon Press, 1998.
  First (but probably not last) edition of indispensible guide to living male authors of crime fiction series. Matching pocket guides, and the original full-size companion book focussing on women are also available.
  Buy this book....Buy the Matching Pocket Guide...Read Rick Robinson's Review.
  .
• Heising, Willetta L.,
  Detecting Women 3:
  A Reader's Guide and Checklist for Mystery Series Written by Women
  Ann Arbor, Michigan: Purple Moon Press, 1999.
  Second edition (and counting) of Macavity Award-winning, indispensible guide to living women authors of crime fiction series. Matching pocket guides, and full-size companion book focussing on men are also available.
  Buy this book....Buy the Pocket Guide...Read Rick Robinson's Review
  .
• Huang, Jim, and Austin Lugar, editors,
  Mystery Muses....Buy this book
  Crum Creek Press, 2006.
  Subtitled "100 classics That Inspire Today's Mystery Writers," the keyword here is definitely "inspire" -- not "inspired." Because the beloved classics chosen here (written by everyone from Edgar Allan Poe to Dennis Lehane) have not only inspired the mystery writers (Ron Kantner, Bill Crider, Dick Lochte, Laura Lippman, Gary Phillips and nonety-five others) who have contributed the short essays to this
  
  
• Keating, H.R.
  Crime and Mystery: The 100 Best Books
  U.K.: Carroll & Graf, 1987.
  
  
• Lupoff, Richard A.,
  The Great American Paperback...Buy this book.
  Portland, OR: Collector's Press, 2001.
  Subtitled "An Illustrated Tribute to Legends of the Book," this is an affectionate, colourful tribute to the art of paperbacks, with over 600 covers, each of them "a miniature gem, evocative of the fashions and attitudes of its era." As well, there's plenty of intriguing comments by the author, Richard A. Lupoff, historian, writer (he writes the Hobart Lindsey P.I. series) and collector, who drew many of these books from his own collection. Like the publisher's blurb says, "This book is destined to become a classic among librarians and graphic designers alike." Hell, there's even a collectors' guide included.
  .
• Lyles, William H.
  Putting Dell on the Map : A History of the Dell Paperbacks.
  Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983.
  .
• David Madden, ed.,
  Tough Guy Writers of the Thirties
  Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press: 1968.
  Pivotal work, includes Herbert Ruhm's "Raymond Chandler: From Bloomsbury to the Jungleand Beyond."
  .
• Margolies, Edward ,
  Which Way Did He Go? The Private Eye in Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Chester Himes and Ross MacDonald
  New York: Holmes & Meier: NY, 1982.
  .
• Marks, Jeffrey,
  Atomic Renaissance ..Buy this book
  Lee's Summit, MO: Delphi books, 2003.
  Marks, best known as Craig Rice's biographer, chronicles seven women mystery writers of the 1940s and 1950s, including Dorothy Hughes, Margerat Millar, Leslie Ford and Patricia Highsmith. Enthusiastic but disappointing -- skimpy, thematically suspect and at times just dumb. You can read my Rap Sheet review here, if you're interested.
  .
• McDermid, Val, and Nevada Barr,
  A Suitable Job for a Woman: Inside the World of Women Private Eyes....Buy this book
  U.K.: 1995.
  U.S.: Poisoned Pen Press, 1999.
  Val McDermid, the author of the Kate Brannigan mysteries, looked at real-life women P.I.s. for the 1995 British edition. She teamed up with American mystery writer to expand the book for the 1999 U.S. edition.
  
  
• Mizejewski, Linda,
  Hardboiled and High Heeled: The Woman Detective in Popular Culture....Buy this book
  New York: Routledge, 2004.
  Illustrated, sharp analysis of women dicks, in print, film and television, covering everyone from Honey West to Sue Grafton and "Silence of the Lambs."
  
  
• Moore, Lewis D.,
  Cracking the Hard-Boiled Detective: A Critical History from the 1920s to the Present ....Buy this book
  Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.,2006.
  Lewis, a retired professor (are mystery fans getting too darn educated or what?) takes a whack at the development of the hard-boiled dick, tailing him through what he considers three main periods: the Early (1927-1955), the Transitional (1964-1977) and the “Modern”  (from the  late seventies on), noting how the character has developed and evolved over the years. Moore taught at the University of the District of Columbia in Washington for thirty years and is also the author of Meditations on America: John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee Series.
  
  
• O'Brien, Geoffrey
  Hardboiled America: The Lurid Paperbacks and the Masters of Noir
  Expanded Edition
  New York: Da Capo Press, 1997.
  A re-issue of O'Brien's classic Hardboiled America: The Lurid Years of the Paperbacks, focussing on paperback fiction and, especially, cover art. O'Brien's book discusses the work of the artists who did the covers; the relationship between the cover art and the stories, and most of the key writers of the 'hard-boiled' era. The history of paperbacks is also covered. A real treat for the eyes.
  .
• Panek, Leroy
  New Hard-Boiled Writers, 1970s-1990s ....Buy this book
  Bowling Green University Popular Press, 2000.
  An examination of how the hard-boiled detective story changed over the last three decades of ther 20th century, focussing on the works of what the author considers the ten most significant contemporary hard-boiled writers of that era: Robert B. Parker, James Crumley, Loren Estleman, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, Carl Hiaasen, Earl Emerson, Robert Crais, James Lee Burke, and Walter Mosley.
  
  
• Panek, Leroy Lad,
  The Origins of the American Detective Story....Buy this book
  Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.,2006.
  Zeroing in on the late 19th century and early 20th, this fascinating and wide-ranging study by an English professor covers the formative years of American detective fiction, and reveals a whole slew of early private detectives I never knew existed. Panek has written a number of books about crime fiction, including Reading Early Hammett, New Hard-Boiled Writers, 1970s-1990s and the Edgar-nominated The American Police Novel.
  
  
• Pronzini, Bill, and Marcia Muller,
  1001 Midnights: The Aficiondo's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction
  New York: Arbor House, 1986.
  Buy this book
  An indispensable overview of the genre, with entries by the editors themselves and a star-studded A-list of writers and critics, including Bill Crider, Max Allan Collins, Ed Gorman, John Lutz, Robert Randisi, Art Scott and all the usual suspects. In fact, it's the reliance on those "usual suspects" which is the book's only flaw: some of the reviews should, perhaps, be taken with a grain of salt. Maybe friends shouldn't review friends' (or spouses') books. But assuming the salt shaker's standing by, this is nonetheless by far one of the greatest critical looks at mystery and crime-writing in years. Highly recommended.
  
  
• Richardson, Michael, editor,
  Maddened By Mystery: A Casebook of Canadian Detective Fiction
  Toronto, Canada: Lester & OrpenDennys, 1982.
  Dated but fascinating collection of short stories by Canadian writers, including Margaret Millar, Harvey O'Higgins and Hulbert Footner, with generous bibliographical notes, and a brief Who's Who of Canadian writers.
  .
• Rippetoe, Rita Elizabeth,
  Booze and the Private Eye: Alcohol in the Hard-Boiled Novel.....Buy this book
  Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2004
  Who'd a thunk it? A fascinating and well-argued look at hooch and the gumshoe, featuring an overview of the genre, and a close look at the works of Chandler, Hammett, Spillane, Parker and Lawrence Block, plus a chapter of booze and female eyes.
  
  
• Ruehlmann, William,
  Saint with a Gun: The Unlawful American Private Eye....Buy this book
  New York: New York University Press, 1974.
  A provocative look at the whole American moral climate, poking a big sharp stick into the cowboy mythos and its offshoot, the private eye, with a look at the genre's bloody history. It's interesting to note that this book came out just before Spenser and Hawk made their debut, and the subsequent rise of the violent sidekick, who will do what the hero won't. In this book, Robert B. Parker is cited often, but only for his dissertation. We've come a long way, baby. Or have we?
  .
• Schreuders, Piet.
  Paperbacks, U.S.A.: A Graphic History, 1939-1959
  San Diego, Calif.: Blue Dolphin Enterprises, 1981.
  ..
• Schwartz, Richard B.,
  Nice and Noir....Buy this book
  A look at contemporary American crime fiction
  Missourii: University of Missouri Press, 2002.
  .
• Skinner, Robert B.
  The Hard-Boiled Explicator: A Guide to the Study of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald
  1985.
  An annotated bibliography of resources relating to the named authors. Although dated, a very useful addition to a bibliography/reference collection.
  .
• Symons, Julian,
  Bloody Murder: From the detective story to the crime novel....Buy this book
  London: Faber and Faber Ltd., 1972.
  One of the better known and more controversial works in the field of crime fiction criticism. Subtitled "From the detective story to the crime novel," and as candid, opinionated and sometimes just plain cranky as its author, it was revised twice, in 1985 and 1992, but Symons never let go of its central theme: after dividing the genre into various sub-genres and separating the wheat from the chaff, he concludes that the classic puzzle mystery, associated with such writers as Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr (and which Symons himself often wrote), somehow fell short of the more modern "crime novel," which put emphasis on psychology and motivation. You can imagine how well that went over in some circles -- and still does.
  
  
• Watson, Priscilla L. Walton and Manina Jones
  Detective Agency: Women Rewriting the Hard-Boiled Tradition ....Buy this book
  California: University California Press, 1999.
  Intriguing look at the post-seventies female eye, from an unapologetically feminist perspective, by two academics from Ontario, Canada. Featuring interviews with authors and publishers, reader surveys, publication data, and an analysis of internet discussion groups to present a fascinating picture of the "industry" of women's detective fiction, and examine the rise of female detectives in television and film.
  
  
• Williams, John,
  Into the Badlands ....Buy this book
  Grafton, 1991.
  A stone-cold classic, as UK journalist John Williams goes on the ultimate hard-boiled roadtrip, motorvating across the U.S.A.,interviewing (and getting guided tours from) primo American crime writers such as James Ellroy (LA), Sara Paretsky (Chicago) and Elmore Leonard (Miami). A return visit was documented in a sequel in 2007.
  
  
• Williams, John,
  Back to the Badlands: Crime Writing in the USA ....Buy this book
  UK: Serpent's Tail, 2007.
  Long-awaited follow-up to his 1991 classic Into the Badlands finds U.K. newshawk Williams returning to the U.S. to discover how much America -- and its crime fiction -- has changed in the ensuing years. He visits with James Lee Burke, James Ellroy, James Crumley, Sara Paretsky, Eugene Izzi, Elmore Leonard, George V. Higgins, Vicki Hendricks, Kem Nunn, Kinky Friedman, Daniel Woodrell, and George P. Pelecanos, and gets the goods. Highly recommended.

Compiled by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Randal Brandt and Monte Herridge for their contributions to this page.