It is the Cat’s opinion that one cannot have too much Readers Advisory for the Mystery field. Mysteries continue to grow in all directions. Their amazing diversity of characters, styles, periods and locations satisfies a wide variety of readers, adding to the pleasure of life for many library users. It is a field that contains endless fun, although the Cat thinks that some of the darker stories have all the appeal of munching on dead rats. She prefers the warmly human, likable stories that are obviously meant to be read by the fire with a bowl of thick cream nearby.
Whatever their taste, mystery lovers should be delighted by the gloriously-named website called Stop, You’re Killing Me! Lucinda Surber is the Webmaster and Stan Ulrich is the Editor. They have taken over a site created by Bonny Brown in 1998. It can be accessed at:
http://www.stopyourekillingme.com
This site won the Anthony Award for best mystery website and it is easy to see why. They do a good job with organizing new materials in various formats, they include a very comprehensive section on awards, they make it easy to find an author or a character in that exponentially growing, continually proliferating population.
But it is their work with genres, locations, jobs, periods and read-alikes that makes this site so remarkable. It should keep mystery readers happily occupied for quite some time, although those devoted to the Golden Age will find themselves pursuing a lot of interlibrary loan.
The Cat was pleased to see that pets have their own genre. Since cats are a mysterious folk, they are better at the mystery game. Still, a well-drawn dog can make a very likable character.
The creators of this website deserve gratitude from all mystery lovers and they certainly deserve a purr from the
Cat