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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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A Gang Of Bold Robbers In France-Experience Of The Parisian Detective, Dumeylard

A Gang Of Twenty-One Robbers, Men And Women—A Bold Robbery Of A Jewelry Store, With Attempt At Assassination—The Language Of The Thieves In Paris (Argot)—Great Skill Exhibited—Mr. Dumeylard On The Track—A Tell-Tale Handkerchief—Correspondence Of The Gang—The Robbers On The Alert—Two—More Detectives On The Track—False Passes Manufactured With Unheard-Of Skill—What Do The Boxes Contain?—The House of The Colonel Beck—A Pathetic Letter—Graft, Mayer, And Pascal, The Leaders Of The Gang—Cousin Madelon, The Correspondent—A Skillful Robbery Of The Store Of Mr. Radigeut—What The Detectives In Paris Are Doing—The Gang Before Court—Graft, The Martyr—Pascal, The Confessor—A Peep In The Past At The Robbers, Their Register Overhauled—How The French Courts Proceed—Graft Compares Himself With Christ—Three Ladies In The Case—Ulmo, The Purchaser Of Stolen Goods—A Robbery Of Fifteen Thousand Francs Of Mr. Mourisson Movel—Theft At Rive-De-Gier—An Ingenious Tool For Counterfeiting City-Stamps—Attempt At Robbery At Ferté-Sous-Jouarre—A Safe Weighing Two Hundred And Fifty Kilogrammes Skillfully Transported—Graft, The Pathetic Lover, In Court—Speeches Of The Criminals—The Abused Graft—The Criminals Meet Their Doom.

by George McWatters

At about half past two in the morning of the 30th of August, 1857, strange noises were suddenly heard in the quiet street Guillaume le Conquérant, at Paris. There were cries, imprecations, the sound of heavy steps. They commenced in one of the houses of the street, and were soon heard in the street itself; a number of men were running. One man left the group and went in the direction of the Palais-de-Justice. Another man, who was only dressed in a night-shirt, over which he had thrown a coat, ran after the fugitive; the latter suddenly turned around and shot at him twice.… 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?