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Web Site Showcases
American Detective Fiction

Posting all Detective Fiction
Prior to Conan Doyle

Fully Searchable

The mission of the Westminster Detective Library to catalog and make available online all the short fiction dealing with detectives and detection published in the United States before Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Scandal in Bohemia” (1891).

This site grew out of research for the anthology Early American Detective Stories (McFarland 2008) that I edited with my mentor and colleague LeRoy Lad Panek (1943-2021), winner of two Edgar awards for his contributions to the scholarly field of detective criticism. We uncovered a treasure-trove of forgotten and previously unavailable detective stories, many more than could be included in a single anthology. And so this on-going project was born.

The site includes a working bibliography; full-text copy of entries are added as they are prepared. A few stories that were published in Britain but which appear to have been previously published in America have also been included and are indicated by an asterisk in the bibliography. I welcome comments and solicit both additional bibliographical entries and texts.

Mary M. Bendel-Simso, editor

Select Story

Circumstancial [sic] Evidence

“A hundred-dollar bill has been removed from this pile of money, since I left it half an hour ago,” said the cashier of a well-known bank, as he returned to his desk, after a short absence. “Who has been in here?”

“No one, so far as I have noticed, except Mr. Lyster and myself,” said Launcelot Jennings, the bookkeeper, of whom the inquiry was made.

“Very strange,” said the cashier, in a disturbed tone. “There were certainly nine thousand three hundred and twenty dollars in that pile—eighteen five hundreds and three one hundreds, besides the smaller bills, and I put them under a paper weight just before going out. One of those hundreds has been removed by someone. Where is Mr. Lyster?”

“Gone out on some business, I believe,” answered Jennings. “Here he comes, though.[”]

“I have missed a hundred-dollar bill, Mr. Lyster, from a pile I left here on my desk,” said the cashier, addressing the newcomer.

“Perhaps you made a mistake in counting the money,” suggested Lyster in a quiet and unconcerned tone.

“There was no mistake,” asserted the cashier, positively. “That bill was here when I left, and it is not here now.”

“And who do you suppose has removed it?” said the young men, simultaneously, and with some spirit.

“Are you both certain that no one else has been here?” said the cashier.

“George Rector was in here a few moments while Launcelot was out,” answered Lyster, after a moment’s reflection.

“While I was in the back office, looking for an old ledger, I suppose,” said the bookkeeper. “But Mr. Rector has not interfered with the money?”

“Of course not,” rejoined Lyster. “I would as soon suspect myself.”

George Rector was a son of the president of the bank, and although not enjoying an enviable reputation in all respects, had never been suspected of downright stealing. He… Read More

Miscellany

The Detective of the Present -- Finn and Jourdan

Time was when a detective was a man who detected things. A detective is still that in some European countries; and he still detects things—in novels. There's Buckett in “Bleak House” who detects Lady Dedlook, and there's that detective in Collin’s story of the “Moon Stone,” quite a detector. New York used to have Old Hayes, who could detect a thing or two; Paris has had Vidocq, and Bow street has had Forster.* But the race has died out entirely in America, and is dying out in England.

Commissioner Jourdan, of Brooklyn, has been making an effort to raise up a detective or two and has actually produced Corr and Bill. Corr and Bill were raised to the Vidocquian task of tracing a mystic murder. Finnan is a hatter; and Finnan has been in States Prison. That ought to be enough for any detective such as Corr to concluded that Finnan did the deed. Edgar A. Poe could not reason out a conclusion clearer than that. So Corr went to where Finnan was making hats.

Is Finnan here? Yes—want to see him?