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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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No. 20.

The Crimson Clue

by Lizzie Campbell

Toward the close of the summer of 1840 an extraordinary event occurred in the village of Acton.

Belle Lincoln, the only child of a widow lady, who had lived in the village for many years, and was generally esteemed and respected, suddenly and inexplicably disappeared.

Belle was seventeen years old, and a lovely blonde.

Of course she had many suitors, but above all she favored Clarence Osgood, a wealthy young barrister, settled in the neighborhood.

As days grew into weeks and weeks into months, and still no news was heard of the missing girl, the belief of her constrained abduction, at first dimly conceived by the villagers, became matter of positive conviction; and her lover, distracted with grief, swore an oath of vengeance against the spoiler of his peace. Years passed, and nothing transpired to lighten the darkness which shrouded the disappearance of Belle Lincoln, and, except in the mourning hearts of her mother and her lover, the young girl was almost forgotten.

At first, young Osgood, controlled by deep grief, had abandoned his profession and all ordinary pursuits. But after five or six years he resumed his wonted occupations, re-entered the practice of the law, and gave up his whole energies to the stern business of life.

In this mood it was that he soon afterward engaged in a criminal case which was agitating the whole country roundabout. His ability and tireless zeal had already made him formidable at the bar, and the excitement of the people knew no bounds when it was said that Clarence Osgood would appear for the prisoner.

The charge was murder.

A young man had been arrested on suspicion of having murdered and then made away with the body of a chambermaid… 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?