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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

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Knots Untied; or, Ways and By-Ways in the Hidden Life of American Detectives

In 1871, a series of fifty-nine detective stories were published as an anthology by Hartford: J. B. Burr and Hyde. The series was titled "Knots Untied; or, Ways and By-Ways in the Hidden Life of American Detectives" and was written by George S. McWatters.

Click here to redirect to "Officer George S. McWatters."

Click here to redirect to "Where He was Born and Reared."

Click here to redirect to "Removes to London."

Click here to redirect to "Migrates to the United States."

Click here to redirect to "Settles in Philadelphia, and Studies Law."

Click here to redirect to "A Heart Too Soft for a Lawyer."

Click here to redirect to "Departs for California."

Click here to redirect to "Back in New York."

Click here to redirect to "Mr. McWatters as Agent and Lecturer."

Click here to redirect to "Anecdote of Lola Montez and Laura Keene."

Click here to redirect to "Mr. McWatters Solving Social Problems."

Click here to redirect to "Our Subject and the Public Press."

Click here to redirect to "McWatters Enters the Metropolitan Police Force."

Click here to redirect to "Personal Incidents."

Click here to redirect to "Officer McWatters During the Late Civil War."

Click here to redirect to "First Seizure of Guns at the North."

Click here to redirect to "Officer McWatters' Services through the Public Press."

Click here to redirect to "Kindly and Wise Province."

Click here to redirect to ""Riot Week," July, 1863. - Officer McWatters in the Thick of the Fight."

Click here to redirect to "Officer McWatters and his Literary Associates."

Click here to redirect to "Officer McWatters as the Good… 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?