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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

Flying Away on a Broomstick

by Judge Clark

“I tell thee, daughter, thou must cease to hold converse with this young stranger; these are no times to make free with every chance comer.”

The speaker was Jethro Ware, a leading man of the town of Salem, in the colony of Massachusetts Bay, in the never-to-be-forgotten time when his evil highness, in his accustomed tour up and down the earth, paid an especial visit to that goodly New England borough, and witches, wizards, and warlocks held high carnival in honor of his coming.

“But I have not made free with Edward Trent,” Rachel answered, coloring at her father’s words; “nor hath there been any converse between us unseemly for a maiden’s ears. Surely none can say aught against him, and his daily walk hath been in all things commendable.”

“It is not for thee, girl, to pass judgment in such matters. True, he is a well-favored and fair-spoken youth; but in these times, when the emissaries of Satan are abroad, one cannot be too circumspect.”

A smile flitted over Rachel’s features. It is probable she saw something ludicrous in coupling Edward Trent with Satan’s emissaries.

“There is another matter, Rachel, of which I may as well speak at this as at a future time,” resumed Jethro Ware, with a look so grave that the smile at once vanished from Rachel’s face. “Pekahiah Craft hath today asked my consent that he take thee to wife… 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?