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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 Indian Stratagem

by J. G. H.

During the Revolutionary War a fort was erected near the Monongahela River, in which the surrounding settlers took refuge in times of particular danger. Among others who fled for refuge to the fort was one David Morgan, a man considerably advanced in life, and the father of a family of several children. Mary Morgan was the oldest—a lovely girl of sixteen summers—whose beauty had won the admiration of all the young men of that section, and whose good sense had also secured their respect.

Before proceeding any further with our tale, in order to illustrate the danger and daring of the times, we will relate an incident which occurred while Morgan was at the fort. This individual had a plantation about a mile from the fort. The Indians had not annoyed them for some days, and having occasion to send to the plantation, he rather thoughtlessly and imprudently allowed two of his children to go there. They were gone some considerable time.

“David,” said his wife, “I feel uneasy about the children.”

“To tell the truth, I don’t feel exactly right myself,” said David. “I think I will take my rifle and go after them. I haven’t felt right since they left the house, and it’s about time for the red-skins to be at their old tricks again.”

With these words David Morgan shouldered his trusty rifle, and walked hastily towards the plantation. He had nearly reached it, when to his horror he saw his little ones pursuing their homeward way, unconscious of danger, while two painted savages were approaching them with cautious steps. The heart of the father sank within him. The pitiless enemies of the white man were about to seize his dearest treasures. David Morgan would not have been the man he was, had he been mindful of his own safety at such a crisis.

“Run! Children! Run! The Indians are after you!” he… 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?