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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

The Withered Hand

by Marah Crosse, Spinster

All the afternoon the rain had poured down in torrents, and, at the early twilight of a bleak autumnal day gathered over the drear landscape, I drew closely the shutters of my office windows, and, turning the gas down, prepared to enjoy a cozy reverie.

The storm grew louder and fiercer. The wind howled dismally through the crevices, and my little wooden sign creaked and groaned on its iron hinges.

As I sat lost in the mazy depths of my fancies, fairyland, there came a loud and imperative knock upon my office door.

Muttering something not at all complimentary to evening callers, I arose and answered the unwelcome summons.

A slight, boyish figure, enveloped in a large black cloak which covered him from head to foot, stood leaning wearily against the railing of the steps.

“Is this Dr. Merriam?”

The voice was singularly clear and sweet, and, with a little thrill of curiosity, I stepped back and bade the intruder enter.

I turned on the gas, which instantly filled the room with a sudden flood of light, and wheeling a great arm-chair before the fire, requested him to be seated.

But, to my surprise, with a most decided gesture, he declined, and turning to the street door, locked it, and put the key in his pocket.

The movement filled me with indignation, and I was about demanding an explanation, when he advanced to where I was standing, and throwing aside the heavy cloak, extended his left hand which was mutilated horribly, and bleeding in a very profuse manner.

“Do not fear me,” he said rapidly, “I merely locked the door to prevent… 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?