TCDE-Team: Created page with "{{Cargo_Reviews_Articles |Date=1995-11-01 |Book=Detective Fiction: The Collector's Guide (Second Edtion) |BookAuthor=John Cooper, B. A. Pike |Reviewer=Christopher Roden |Topics=Collecting }} This review of the book ''"Detective Fiction: The Collector's Guide", by John Cooper & B. A. Pike'' was written by Christopher Roden and published in the The Parish Magazine (No. 13, november 1995). This review sees ''Detective Fiction:..."

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Created page with "{{Cargo_Reviews_Articles |Date=1995-11-01 |Book=Detective Fiction: The Collector's Guide (Second Edtion) |BookAuthor=John Cooper, B. A. Pike |Reviewer=Christopher Roden |Topics=Collecting }} This review of the book ''"Detective Fiction: The Collector's Guide", by John Cooper & B. A. Pike'' was written by Christopher Roden and published in the The Parish Magazine (No. 13, november 1995). This review sees ''Detective Fiction:..."

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{{Cargo_Reviews_Articles
|Date=1995-11-01
|Book=Detective Fiction: The Collector's Guide (Second Edtion)
|BookAuthor=John Cooper, B. A. Pike
|Reviewer=Christopher Roden
|Topics=Collecting
}}
This review of the book ''"Detective Fiction: The Collector's Guide", by John Cooper & B. A. Pike'' was written by [[Christopher Roden]] and published in the [[The Parish Magazine (newsletter)|The Parish Magazine]] (No. 13, november 1995).

This review sees ''Detective Fiction: The Collector's Guide'' as an attractive and useful reference for collectors, with strong bibliographical detail, helpful essays, and valuable appendices. While the [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] material is welcomed, the reviewer still regards [[Richard Lancelyn Green|Green]] and Gibson as the superior authority and treats this guide as secondary for serious Doylean work.

== Review ==
[[File:the-parish-magazine-n13-1995-11-p24.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[The Parish Magazine (newsletter)|The Parish Magazine]] (No. 13, november 1995, p. 24)]]

: [[File:john-cooper-1994-detective-fiction-collector-guide-2ed.jpg|100px]]
: '''Detective Fiction: The Collector's Guide (Second Edtion)'''
: by John Cooper & B. A. Pike
: Scolar Press, 1994; x + 341pp; £39.50
: ISBN: 0-85967-991-8

'''Reviewed by Christopher Roden'''

This is a guide for the collector of detective fiction, the bibliophile who needs to know descriptions of first editions, dealers, and librarians, and as such it must certainly fulfil a function. The production is attractive, the typeface clear, and there is an abundance of illustrations, both black and white and colour, illustrating dust-jackets of first editions of the many writers assembled here.

The first edition, the authors tell us, concentrated on Golden Age authors and their successors, but now the net is cast much more widely. Thank goodness for that, because it has allowed the authors to include [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]], whose [[Sherlock Holmes]] novels and collections are given the full treatment with bibliographical descriptions carefully re-written from the information provided in Green & Gibson. A little poetic licence is employed in the descriptions of [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]] and [[Dr. Watson|Watson]].

In addition to the detailed author-by-author section, there are useful notes on 'Approaches to Collecting', 'Forming a Collection', and 'Maintaining a Collection'. There are useful appendices, too: 'Specialist Dealers', 'Glossary of Terms used by collectors and dealers', 'A Selective Guide to publishers' practice in designating first editions', and a list of Societies and Specialist Journals.

This is a reference book, a book for dipping into, a book useful for providing background information on various authors. Where [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] is concerned, however, I'll continue to rely on and trust [[Richard Lancelyn Green|Green]] & Gibson — anything else is second best.

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Review:Detective Fiction: The Collector's Guide/Christopher Roden - Revision history