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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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A Detective’s Story

How a Cleveland Confidence Man Secured
a Lady’s Valuable Watch

Last summer, one afternoon, an estimable young lady whom I happen to know personally went down to Lakeview Park to bathe in the balmy breezes wafted o’er the lake from the pine forests of Michigan. As she strolled in perfect content with herself and the world in general she was accosted by an exceedingly nice-looking and well-dressed young man. His address was so refined that she soon fell into as animated a conversation with him as the warmth of the day permitted. They walked and talked and gradually the conversation began to turn upon himself. He painted his past life in glowing colors and made his future out to be dazzling in brilliancy. He was the only son of a wealthy lumberman and was traveling around the world on no other mission than that of killing time.

“They sat upon a seat under the shade of the trees, while he filled her full of fine words. He was an expert in the art of wooing and knew well when to draw the line between familiarity and reserve. He was the most modest of men at times and begged pardon for his presumption when no pardon was necessary. The young lady thought he was adorable. She gazed at him with eyes of love, and he was by no moans slow in returning the divine feeling.

“Then when the sinking sun warned them that the day was dying she arose to go, gave him her address and asked him to call upon her that evening. That was exactly what he wanted, and as they walked homeward he dwelt upon the glories of the setting sun, the harmonious blending of the various colors, so vividly represented to them far out upon the lake, and hoped the closing of her life would be as splendid.

“In the evening he called upon her and won the hearts of pa and ma by the grace of his presence and the sageness of his utterances. He talked of Rome and the catacombs, Egypt and the… 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?

Select Story

A Detective’s Story

How a Cleveland Confidence Man Secured a Lady’s Valuable Watch

How a Cleveland Confidence Man Secured
a Lady’s Valuable Watch