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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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Kitty Gray's Trial

by Mary C. Vaughan

Gray eyes, pearly skin, cheeks on which the fleeting crimson showed, and ripe, red lips, made the light, youthful form attractive, as it came gliding down the steps of a handsome, up-town, brown-stone mansion. More than one person turned to gaze, but, in faith, somewhat boldly, because a straw hat enclosed the face, and a blanket shawl enwrapped the form, and told that she who wore them, if she lived in that mansion, occupied a servant’s place.

If there were tear stains and sadness on the face, few even looked in sympathy. No matter for her sweet, delicate beauty and pretty appealing ways. She was but a servant. Some, possibly, might feel an interest in her, might feel sorry for her if they but knew she had a worthy cause of grief; but none cared enough to inquire, and by a kind word unlock the fountain of the tears that glittered behind those sweeping lashes.

She came down and glided swiftly away. The tall policeman who stood on the corner did glance at her sympathetically, but, to be sure, that only showed his office had not yet hardened him. And, maybe, that a pretty girl’s distress had power to touch a man’s heart. Even a policeman, inured to rough life and the contact of coarse characters, can feel a pretty girl’s grief. That seems true. There’s a soft spot in every man’s heart.

“Well, Bridget,” quoth he, with a touch of hilarity, “what’s the matter, hey? Did the mistress scold you? Don’t cry! Girls have to be awful pretty to look better for crying.”

The girl made no answer, but hurried on silently, and never looked at him.

“She didn’t hear me,” the man murmured, and a grieved look came over his really handsome face. The truth was, he had often noticed this pretty girl as he passed on his beat, and was deeply chagrined at his ill success in his first attempt at… 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?