The Deadly Directory 2000: Your Guide to the World of Mystety Fiction, edited by Kate Derie (Deadly Serious Press, ISBN 0-9667534-3-7, trade paperback, 240 pp, $25 (all other countries $33 price includes priority/air mail postage)

From Aardvarks Mystery Booksellers to Zenar Press, from the Archives of Detective Fiction to Whodunit Productions, The Deadly Directory 2000 has everything you need to know about the people who buy, sell, write, and enjoy mystery fiction. Editor Kate Derie, creator of the popular ClueLass.com website, brings together details and descriptions for over 750 mystery booksellers, events, groups, publications, and more.
Clever icons and a comprehensive index make it easy to find exactly what you're looking for, whether it's new books, used books, reviewers, event planners, online resources, fan groups, or independent publishers.
"I've been leafing through the new Deadly Directory and am just blown away by how wonderful it is. Icons, indexes, info... all fabulous," says Martha Lawrence, author of the Elizabeth Chase mystery series.
Authors, booksellers, collectors, librarians, and publicists will all find this 240-page trade paperback an essential reference for locating mystery-fiction and true-crime resources. And every mystery fan will enjoy browsing through the listings.
"The fun of the Deadly Directory," says editor Derie, "is finding the unexpected, like a Sherlockian group in Japan (The Men with the Twisted Konjo), the L.A. Coroner's Gift Shop (Skeletons in the Closet), or a group of forensic professionals who donate their time to help solve old crimes (The Vidoq Society)."
Each listing includes contact names; postal, email, and web addresses; phone & fax numbers; and a brief description a unique feature of this year's directory is the 'RIP' appendix, which lists businesses and organizations that have 'expired.'
Derie also highlights some not-so-Deadly-Serious information: "This year I asked mystery booksellers to share the name of the store mascot, and they listed cats named Nick and Nora, a dog named Archie Goodwin, and a skeleton named Sam, among others."
The Deadly Directory 2000 is truly international, with entries from 30 different countries. "I've corresponded with people all over the world in the course of bringing together this information," says Derie, "and it seems that mystery fiction is universally popular in any language."