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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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Written for The Flag of Our Union

Too Much Haste

by James Dabney

George Summers was a brave lad. He was twelve years old, and well grown for his age. He stood high in his classes, and was regarded by his teacher as the most promising boy in the school. He was a truthful lad too, and his teacher was proud of him on this account. He knew he could always depend upon George for a fair and candid statement of whatever happened.

One day the teacher placed in his desk an unusually fine orange. He had bought it on his way to school and intended to carry it home to his wife who was sick. During the recess he left the room to attend to something on the grounds, and when he returned he found George Summers just closing the lid of his desk.

“What are you doing there, George?” he asked, noticing the flash on the lad’s face.

“I was looking to see what mark you gave me today, sir,” replied the boy, in some confusion.

“You should not have done so without my permission,” said the teacher, gravely.

“I know I did not do right, sir,” said George, “but I was very anxious to see if I would lose my place in my class, as it is the first time I have failed to be perfect in my Latin.”

“Don’t do… 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?