American Detective Fiction Prior to July 1891
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Web Site Showcases
American Detective Fiction
Posting all Detective Fiction
Prior to Conan Doyle
Fully Searchable
It is 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).
We have posted our working bibliography and will add full-text copy of its entries as we prepare them.We have also included important British publications, which are indicated with an asterisk in the bibliography. We welcome comments and solicit both additional bibliographical entries and texts.
Editors:
LeRoy Lad Panek
Mary M. Bendel-Simso
Detective Story
by H. B. S.
Find the full text here.
The Female Assassin
As related by Prince Canbaceres
Arch-Chancellor of the French Empire
About the close of the Government of the Directory, the keeper of a hotel-garni, in the Rue de l’Universite, waited on the minister of police, and in a state of great agitation, he stated that one of his lodgers, whom he named, had been murdered on the preceding night. He had engaged the lodging about six o’clock in the evening, describing himself as an inhabitant of Melun, who had come to Paris for a day or two on business. After ordering his chamber to be prepared for him, he went out, saying that he was going to the Odeon, and would return immediately after the performance. About midnight he returned, but not alone; he was accompanied by a young and beautiful female, dressed in male attire, whom he stated to be his wife, and they were shown to the apartment which had been prepared. . . . .
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Good Detective Work
Bank President—“Ah! Hawkshaw, I am sorry to see you back so soon. You evidently did not catch up with our cashier before he reached Canada!”
Detective—“I found him at Niagara Falls, and I got all of the stolen funds back.”
“What the whole $40,000. Well, well! That’s glorious. You brought him back with you, I suppose?”
“No; I had no power to arrest him, because he was on the Canadian side.”
“The Canadian side! Then how under the sun did you get the money?”
“Well, you see, he took a ride, and after he paid his fare I robbed the hackman.”
Published in The Cedar Rapids [IA] Evening Gazette, September 18, 1884
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