Blood on the Stage: Crime, Mystery & Detective Plays Collection | Classic Theater Dramas for Mystery Lovers & Book Clubs

This is an extremely useful book - so useful that I'm sorry that there's only one volume. As a former Artistic Director of a theater company, I would love to have had access to this volume when trolling for great plays deserving of revival. More than an encyclopedia, the book offers a thorough multi-page description of every conceivable crime and punishment play - whether penned as serious drama or for pure entertainment. The author writes in an informal, conversational style and though I'd intended to thumb through the book, I found myself reading it from cover to cover. It's very thorough - summarizes recent and past productions and their reviews, and gives information about the authors; in that way it resembles a textbook (fortunately, unlike the dry texts I suffered through as a theatre major, this one manages to be thorough as well as entertaining). But it (and its cousin, "Sherlock Holmes on the Stage") is also an excellent reference for theater professionals searching for great material. Or, for that matter, to anyone looking to learn a bit more about the history of theater.