The News

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

Buried Alive

by “Delta”

One evening in midwinter, the residence of Doctor Sharpe was occupied by a merry party, consisting of the Sharpes’ relatives and friends, met to commemorate the diamond wedding of the doctor and his bride, who was still beautiful with that beauty which a pure soul always gives to its possessor.

The dance was over—a social hop, got up chiefly for the young folks. So was the supper—a comfortable affair—which made every one feel at peace with all the world. Speeches had been made—prospective and retrospective, complimenting and congratulating the worthy host and hostess, who smilingly graced either end of the social board. There was now a lull, in anticipation of a reply from the doctor.

“Either a speech or a story, grandpa,” suggested a favorite granddaughter.

“I think I shall tell you a story,” said Dr. Sharpe, presently. “Many of you have heard it already; but it will be new to the young folks.”

“Hurrah, grandpa; a story—a story!” shouted the little ones, and the old doctor began.

“This party—to commemorate our diamond wedding—reminds me of a story about the valuable diamond ring now glittering on your grandmother’s finger, which was once buried with its owner.”

“Grandma buried?” said several little ones, derisively.

“Yes—buried alive. It was the diamond ring that saved her. It happened when I was quite a young man, and the city much smaller than it is now. Madison Square was far in the country; Canal street was a ditch. A young doctor who had recently settled in the city was called one night to see a patient in the outskirts of the town—for it did not hold a higher rank then. As he was returning home, along a solitary road that skirted a… 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?