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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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The Cork Finger

The reader is not very much advanced in years who recalls the period when the Albion Hotel in this city was one of the most popular resorts we had. It was under the Major’s roof that one found comfortable apartments, a most unexceptionable cuisine, and a cellar stocked with the choicest vintages; and for many years the aroma of the cigars which came from the Albion could almost be distinguished, so rich and fragrant were the brands.

It was the month of August, 18—, just as twilight was fading into darkness, that I entered the office, to meet, as every one did, with a pleasant salutation from the most even-tempered of hosts. Near the window sat a rather good looking man, about forty years of age, evidently a foreigner. As I passed him our eyes met, and the thought struck me that he was not a stranger to me, though where to place him I was unable. I glanced at the hotel register and read over the list of arrivals for a week, when I descried in the usual style of French calligraphy the name of Legendre, Paris. Years previous I had been in Paris, and one of my business acquaintances bore that surname. The age of the stranger prevented it from being him, but there was a family look which was not to be evaded. As I looked I could trace a strong resemblance to my former friend, and I solicited an introduction from the Major, and before I ventured to inform my new acquaintance of my suspicions, I endeavored to ascertain the cause of his visit. He was communicative and intelligent upon every point, but when I attempted to draw him out as to the purpose of his trip, he simply evaded it by an ingenious turn or some sparkling remark. I ventured to inform him that though he spoke most excellent English, I was not entirely acquainted with his language, and I gradually spoke of my friend bearing his name, whom I had known in Paris.

“Anatole Legendre?” he said.

“Yes—Rue St. Augustine.”… 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?