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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 Torn Glove

by A Retired Member of the Detective Police

by William Russell

On the 4th of January 18--, a startling rumor prevailed in the city of New York that Mr. Stephen Meredith, a respectable merchant and citizen, had been found assassinated in his bed. His house, which was situated in Canal Street, was immediately surrounded by a curious crowd, and upon inquiry it was found that the news was only too true. The utmost consternation prevailed, and a hundred rumors were afloat, but nothing definite could be learned.

At this period I was engaged as a regular detective officer, and Mr. Meredith’s partner called on me the same afternoon to investigate the matter, as the inquiries of the authorities up to that time had led to no result.

My first proceeding was to make inquiries with respect to Mr. Meredith’s past history, and the information I gathered amounted to substantially as follows:

The unfortunate gentleman was English by birth, who, at twenty years of age, emigrated to this country. He immediately obtained a situation as a clerk in a commission house, and soon rendered himself so useful that his employers took him into partnership, and finally he became the head of the firm. His integrity was unimpeachable, and he was universally respected by all who knew him. He had never married, but entertained a good deal of company at his house. His partner, Mr. Johnson (for it was from him I obtained this information), further informed me that he was not aware Mr. Meredith had an enemy in the world.

I next proceeded to visit the scene of the tragedy, and on inquiring at the residence of the deceased in Canal Street, I was immediately admitted.

I found that everything remained in exactly the same state as when the murder was first discovered in the morning. I entered the fatal chamber, and found the deceased… 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?