| Vol.
I, No. 7 | May
Day / Mother's Day | Apr.
20th, 2001 |
Books
& Literature
Links to Books & Lit On-Line
. Links
to Books & Lit On-Line  | Reading
Room
Library of Congress |
The amount of info on the web is enormous, as anyone who's ever tried to run a
search can attest to. And, to put it all in context, best estimates say
that only a fraction, maybe 20 - 40 % of what's out there is actually making its
way to the search engines.
Well ... Here
at DownStreet, we'd like to try to help. So each issue, we post a
few links in Books & Lit to sites that might interest you. Sometimes
the links will be related to one another ... sometimes we'll just
offer up a somewhat random sampling. In either case, we think we might be
able to help you find the kind of site you've been looking for.
Of course, while we can't vouch for the fact that every link we provide will be
of interest to everyone, we do our best to filter out the noise and the
bustle. ... Links
to Mystery Sites On-Line  | Sherlock
Holmes |
With this month's Book
Worm -- The Mysterious
Allure of the Detective Novel -- we thought some links to mystery sites
might be in order. ... This month's selections, then,
will take you on a tour of this genre. ... . Ed.
Note: If you're interested in things mysterious, .
you
may also want to check out this month's Sounds
Around
for a review of and scenes from the recent
CVU Drama Club
production of Agatha Christie's
The Mousetrap.
.
. The
Mysterious Home Page
You
can't, in your wildest dreams, imagine how many Internet sites are devoted
to some aspect of the detective novel! Not until you take a look at
this web resource guide created and owned by Jan B. Steffan from Aalborg,
Denmark. He has categorized web resources in his site menu.
Categories include: general guides, sites devoted to specific authors, to
specific characters, themes in mystery fiction, mystery reviews, mystery
magazines, even a long index of sites all about Sherlock Holmes ... and many
more. Each category includes its own sub-categories. You can
find close to 100 web resources devoted to the brilliant Sherlock Holmes or
a website called Sleuths to Die For put out by the six creators of six
female detective characters.
.
The site
is a very well organized and easy to use. The layout is attractive and
helps you navigate comfortably. The advertising here is not
distracting. The Mysterious Index Page lists out all the categories
and includes a search function, although you may not find your favorite
author or novel until you get to one of the listed sites.
.
We
might never have come across some of these sites without the Mysterious
Homepage: African American Mystery Page ... American Indian Mysteries:
A Crossover Genre Not Quite There ... Grandma Gumshoes ... and Twists, Slugs
and Roscoes: A Glossary of Hardboiled Slang. For the abundance
and the fun, check it out.
Rating: **** [4 stars]
. The
Classic Mystery Guide
This
comprehensive and rich site is written and maintained by Michael Gost, a 48
year old System Architect with a Ph.D. in mathematics. It's purely
educational with no advertising and lots and lots of information. The
focus is primarily historical, following the various crime-novel lineages
from Poe up until the "1960 era." The Guide to Classic
Mysteries is arranged chronologically by school of detective fiction, with
authors listed for each school. For example, under Turn of the Century
Mystery Fiction, Gost lists: Doyle and His School, Rogue Fiction, Mary
Roberts Rinehart, Followers of Mary Roberts Rinehart, Literary Visitors,
Scientific Detection ... and Israel Angwill, Jacques Futrell, G.K.
Chesterton and Impossible Crime.
.
Almost
every major trend or author in crime fiction is linked to a brief
descriptive essay. Many authors get long essays with some critical
reviews of many of their books. The essays focus almost solely on the
history of the writer's career and on plot. But if you want an overview of
the English language detective novel, this is one of the most comprehensive
sites you can find.
.
You can also search
authors alphabetically. The site's homepage gives you an annotated
menu, which is very helpful because, with so many links within the text, you
can sometimes lose track of where you are. There's nothing pretty
about this site, no graphics, no fancy fonts ... just information,
information, information. It is simply an excellent reference.
Rating:
**** [4 stars]
. Mysteryguide.com
First
the bad news. This site is old. It hasn't been updated
since 1999. Now the good news. It has almost 700 reviews of
mystery novels. ...
.
If you're looking for your next mystery,
then, try this site. The reviews are organized by category like,
classic, police procedural, political, etc. For each category you get
a handy chart that shows you the author, the year of the book or books and a
star rating (out of five). Click to get the review. The reviews
are long enough to give you a good feel for the book and no longer.
There are a few author interviews which are interesting, but other sites
have more of these. (Januarymagazine.com, for instance).
... Another nice feature of this site is that for each category or
sub-genre, there are sidebars which define the sub-genre, list
"archetypes" of the sub-genre, link you to a history of the
sub-genre and give a little glossary of sub-genre-related terms.
.
Aesthetics
were not a priority with this site, but the layout is interesting and very
helpful for navigation. Some photos of the authors interviewed would
have been fun. I love seeing unassuming faces of authors who have
created the most hard-boiled or fearless characters. Even though it's
not up to date ...
Rating: ***1/2 [3-1/2 stars]
. *******
******* If you know of any
links that you think are worthwhile, why not send them along to ...
links@downstreetmagazine.com
... If we agree, we'll be happy to include
them in an upcoming issue to pass the word along. ...
Thanks. *******
******* .
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