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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 Brewster Diamonds

by H.S. Keller

“And you say the diamonds were very valuable?”

“Worth twenty thousand dollars, Mr.—what may I call your name?” asked Harold Brewster of the plainly-dressed man seated upon the opposite side of the table.

“Oh—Smith,” responded the man.

“Quite a common name that; but I suppose it will suffice as well as any,” said Mr. Brewster.

“Precisely.”

A short interval of silence then elapsed. It is quite evident that the two are studying one another—Mr. Brewster because the man is a stranger, and the other because it is his calling.

Finally Mr. Brewster broke the silence by asking:

“You are a detective?”

Smith acknowledged this by simply bowing.

“And do you think, Mr. Smith, that you can help me to recover the jewels?”

“I can try—”

“So can any one try,” quickly interrupted Brewster.

“Let me finish, please,” said Smith. “When I try I succeed. If you wish my services give me some points. Tell me who the diamonds belonged to. Give me some explicit idea as to their form, number, and the like. I cannot work in the dark, and blindfolded, Mr. Brewster.”

“That’s a fact. Well, in the first place, the jewels are old family heirlooms They consist of a necklace, eardrops and a pair of bracelets. Ah! by-the-way, I can give you a better idea by these,” said Mr. Brewster, taking from a drawer a box. He took the cover off; and there, ensconced among downy cotton was a perfect mass of glittering,… 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?