How to Search

1. Check the database or databases you wish to use ("search all" is one of your choices).

2. To search BY AUTHOR OR EDITOR, type the last name first, then a comma, then the first name in the AUTHOR box. For example, if you are looking for AUTHOR Peter Robinson, type: Robinson, Peter. The last-name-first rule works for all authors in all lists. If you don't know an author's first name, just his/her initial, try the last name only into the search box. Also, if you don't get results typing the last name and then the first name, try typing just the last name.

3. To search by CHARACTER, type the name, e. g. Sherlock Holmes, into the KEYWORD box. Do not reverse first and last name in this case. Not all of our entries name the detective as yet, but we are working on that. (If you advise us of an omission, we will correct the problem.)

3. To search by TITLE, type the name of the work you wish to research in the TITLE box. Do not put quotations around the title, or underscore or italicize it. E.g. just type in The Big Sleep.

4. To search by KEYWORD, enter the subject words in which you are interested in the KEYWORD box. We've tried to use familiar and "intuitive" terms, like "film noir" and "police procedural." and although not every entry is fully keyworded as yet, we are working on this.

5. An added feature on the "Our Lists" page, once you have chosen a list, is that by clicking on the small brick coloured triangle beside Author, Title or Year you can change the order of the records.  For example by clicking on the triangle next to year, you can see all of the records grouped together by year beginning with the most recent year. By clicking on Author, all of an author's works are then grouped by author, and so forth

Eventually we will produce a thesaurus of the keywords used in our lists, but this index is not yet ready. To give you an idea of the kind of keywords we use, here are some in our list.

• Film noir
• Gender
• Race
• Adaptation
• Genre
• Femme fatale
• Cozy
• Amateur sleuth
• Hardboiled
• Police procedural
• Urban setting
• British Cop Show

The keywords used are quite intuitive, so it is worth playing around, searching intuitively, and seeing what you come up with. Suggestions for adding keywords are always welcome, as is any information that will help us to improve our lists and access to them. If you have suggestions please contact us:

jeanette@brocku.ca
mrose@brocku.ca