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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

Select Story

The Skeleton in a Well

It was during the year 1851, in the thriving little town of Argentiere, near the foot of the Cevennes Mountains in France. The day was charming. Many of the inhabitants were traversing the highways, enjoying the agreeable weather. Among the number there was a tall young man, apparently not more than twenty-five years of age. In his right hand he carried a cane, and in his left a small carpet bag. His gait was quick, and from his expression he appeared to be bent on some important errand. In this manner he went along, occasionally glancing around to view the surrounding objects. He had hardly gone a quarter of a mile, when he came to a street which was in the suburbs of the town. He turned and proceeded up this. Presently, after walking but a short distance, he arrived at an inn. Here he hesitated, and after viewing the exterior, he muttered to himself the following words:

“It is very strange that this is the first inn I have seen throughout my route. However, I will put up here.”

So saying he entered the inn, and having registered his name was shown to a room. After ordering his dinner, he went into his apartment to rest himself. His order was immediately responded to, and after eating he prepared to retire, intending to take a long sleep, so that early the next morning he might visit the various merchants of the town. He accordingly went to bed, and was soon asleep. While thus sleeping he had a dream that made a very strong impression upon him.

“I thought that I had arrived at the same town, but in the middle of the evening, which was really the case; that I had put up at the same inn, and gone as a stranger would do, to see whatever was worthy of observation… 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?