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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 New Year's Mystery

Between the years 1840 and 1850, the crime of burglary prevailed to an alarming extent all over England. In the suburbs of large towns precautions of an almost incredible nature had to be taken to provide against the determined and skillful attacks of midnight depredators. Iron shutters protected the windows, and to those were attached bells on springs to announce to the household any attempt on the part of the burglars. The doors were lined with metal, and strong bolts and bars afforded a further safeguard. It was no uncommon thing for houses to be entered and robbed in twilight, and every door was provided with a catch-chain, which permitted it to be open only a few inches, thus allowing an unknown visitor to be scanned and spoken to without the possibility of his forcing his way into the dwelling. These difficulties, however, did not thwart the thief, but merely aroused his enterprise and ingenuity.

As already stated, the vicinity of the large towns afforded to the burglar his favorite field of operations, and the very remarkable case now to be narrated occurred in Edgbaston, a fashionable suburb of Birmingham.

In 1843, there resided in Edgbaston a wealthy retired merchant, named Goodall. He was a childless widower, and his two maiden sisters lived with him. His dwelling was one-half of what is there known as a double or semi-detached villa. It was large and sumptuously furnished, and Mr. Goodall was famous for the splendid entertainments he gave. His plate was superb and his sisters’ jewelry… 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?