A trip to the New York Aquarium leads spinster sleuth Hildegarde Withers into an investigation into the murder of Wall Street broker Gerald Lester, whose body is found floating in the pool of the Galapagos penguins

The humor of Sherlock Holmes, Donald Westlake, Agatha Christie, Michael Innes, and Edmund Crispin are just a few of those discussed. A major point highlighted by this book is simply that wit, slapstick. laughter, and an anything-can-happen motif appear in a significant amount of fiction about crime.

In 1989 alone, for example, there were some forty-five major motion pictures which were sequels or part of a series. The film series phenomenon crosses all genres and has been around since the silent film era. This reference guide, in alphabetical order, lists some 906 English Language motion pictures, from 1899 to 1990, when the book was initially published. A brief plot description is given for each series entry, followed by the individual film titles with corresponding years, directors and performers. Animated pictures, documentaries and concert films are not included but movies released direct to video are.

In this classic whodunnit, crime-solving teacher Hildegarde Withers discovers a dead body while on a trip to the New York Aquarium with her third-grade class. For the third graders at Jefferson School, a field trip is always a treat. But one day at the New York Aquarium, they get much more excitement than they bargained for. A pickpocket sprints past, stolen purse in hand, and is making his way to the exit when their teacher, the prim Hildegarde Withers, knocks him down with her umbrella. By the time the police and the security guards finish arguing about what to do with Chicago Lew, he has escaped, and Miss Withers has found something far more interesting: a murdered stockbroker floating in the penguin tank. With the help of Detective Oscar Piper, this no-nonsense spinster embarks on her first of many adventures. The mystery is baffling, the killer dangerous, but for a woman who can control a gaggle of noisy third graders, murder isn’t frightening at all. The Penguin Pool Murder is part of the Hildegarde Withers Mysteries series, which also includes Murder on the Blackboard and Murder on Wheels.

This thorough reference book contains 5,418 listings of feature-length films produced in the United States from the beginning of the talkies era in 1927 through 1939. For each are supplied production credits, year of production and release, genre, plot synopsis, cast and technical crew, running time (when available), debuts and career finales, and varying critical reactions to the films and their stars (e.g., Academy Awards and nominations). A comprehensive index concludes the book.