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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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How Linton Bank Was Robbed

The little city of Linton, a place remarkable for the sobriety, industry and morality of its people—is just emerging from a thrilling scene which shook the whole community with nervous excitement, and that came near to destroying the fire of faith in humanity which has so long burned brightly in the bosoms of those easy-going, honest country folk.

The journey I have just completed was one of haste, and my stay in Linton was much shorter than I had hoped it might be; but I was there sufficiently long to witness the closing scenes of a remarkable trial, and one that will be long remembered by the people of that quiet town, and be talked of as the city's tragedy.

The Linton Bank is one of the interesting institutions not only of Linton, but of the whole county in which it is situated. It has long been noted for its financial stability, and its officers and clerks have many years borne the name of “Linton's Conservatives,” which was given them for their perfect honesty and firm adherence to strict banking principles.

One of my first movements after I had arrived and partaken of a wholesome noonday meal, a la rural district, was to visit the bank for the purpose of having a check cashed.

As the teller handed me a small package of greenbacks, I observed that my old friend, President Goodnow, who was sitting near the huge doors of the iron vault, was looking me sharply in the face. He seemed to have observed that the new iron and wire railing, separating the teller's corner from the outer part of the room, had strongly attracted my attention, and from my looks judged that I was noting the changed appearance of things, and, therefore, naturally inferred that I was not a stranger at the counter. But the teller's face was a strange one… 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?