Home - Where you will find out more about mystery novels, find new authors, and learn about some really great older ones.

Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Crime and Police

Menu: Crime, Criminals, and the Police | Broadsides and Newspapers | Fiction About the 18th and 19th Centuries | History of the Mystery Novel

Mystery Author Index

Crime, criminals, and the police

• Criminal Justice in London, 1690 - 1800 - From the London Lives web site. This covers the police, the courts, houses of correction, and prisons.
• Crime in Victorian London- This site is by the BBC.
• Victorian Crime - This site is by the British Library. It has many period illustrations.
• The Ratcliff Highway Murders - 1811. Sensational murder case which attracted much public interest through the publication of newspapers and penny dreadfuls. The Maul and the Pear Tree by T. A. Critchley and mystery novelist P. D. James is a critical study of these crimes.
• Casebook: Jack the Ripper - Unsolved murders in London in 1888.
• The Proceedings of Old Bailey London - Proceedings of trials from 1674 - 1913. This is a work in progress and not all years have been entered yet. There is background information about this period and a section for teachers who wish to use it with their classes.
• Villainy Detected - "The materials on this site illustrate eighteenth and nineteenth century crime and punishment practices in America and Britain." This site has informative essays and links to relevant sites. It is by Lehigh University.
• Victorian Web - Extensive source of information on Victorian England.

Broadsides and Newspapers

• A Brief Guide to Broadsides - A short description of broadsides.
• The Popularity of Broadsides - From the Library of Congress.
• Dying Speeches and Bloody Murder - Crime broadsides collected by the Harvard University Law Library. These are penny papers published in the 1800's describing crimes and executions.
• The Word on the Street - Broadsides from the National Library of Scotland covering the period between 1650 and 1910. You will find quite a few about crime and bodysnatching.
• The History of Crime and Punishment in Britain, 1790 - 1870 - Broadsides from the special collections of the University of Glasgow library.
• Early Eighteenth-Century Newspaper Reports - A compilation by Richard Norton. In addition to the crime reports, there are reports of other aspects of life in England in this time period.
• Papers Past- A digitised collection of New Zealand newspapers from 1840 to 1915. This collection may be searched for any crime of interest to you.
• American Newspapers from 1800 - 1899 - From the Library of Congress.

Fiction during and about the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

• At the Circulating Library - A database of Victorian fiction. For research or for lovers of Victorian novels.
• The Strand Magazine - Popular Victorian reading. The Sherlock Holmes stories were published here. Archived at the Internet Archive.
• Step Aside Sherlock! Women Were Cracking Cases in Victorian England, Too - An article by Emily Martin, Bookriot, May, 2018
• Dime Novels Full Text - Popular reading from 1860 to 1920. These were an inexpensive way to read crime stories. This site is by Stanford University.
• Why We All Love a Victorian Murder - "Sexual repression, dark alleys, great detectives, ornate prose. No wonder the 19th century is our template for crime fiction". This is an article by James McCreet in The Guardian, May 15, 2011.
• Ten Reasons Why Victorian England is the Perfect Setting for Murder - fog, poisons and eight others. This is an article by Connie Berry in Crime Reads, May 12, 2022
• Crime and Crime Fiction in the Victorian Age - Articles from the British Library.
• Victorian Crime Fiction - An article by Christopher Pittard.
• Mapping Emotions in Victorian London - A crowdsourced project to relate locations in London to Victorian fiction. The mystery reader will probably be most attracted to the areas of "Dreadful London".
• Six Historical Crime Novels set During the Gilded Age - Crime in The United States.
• Mysteries of the 1800's - This list from Stop, You're Killing Me should keep you reading for years.
• Victorian Crimes: Mysteries 2013 - An article by Suzanne Fox in Publishers Weekly, March, 2013. New mystery novels set in the Victorian period.
• Anne Perry - Author of mystery novels set in Victorian London.
• Regency Mystery Novels - This list is from the Historical Mystery Web site.
• Ripper Street - Victorian era police television drama. Originally on BBC. It may purchased. Check your streaming service.

History of the Mystery Novel

• A Guide to Classic Mystery and Detection - A great source of information on the history of the mystery novel.
• Classic Crime Fiction - Author biographies and bibliographies, articles on the history of the mystery novel, and book cover illustrations. This site is well worth a visit.
• Det.Novel - A history of the detective novel. This site is by William Marling.
• The Mystery File - This site has book reviews, author interviews, and mystery readinglists. There are also articles on older mystery novels, mystery series, and TV mystery characters.
• Why We Think That the Butler Did It - Did the butler ever actually do it? This is from the Guardian Book Blog.
• The Golden Age of Detection Wiki - Information about authors and books, but since this is a wiki, the reader should question the reliability of the information.
• The Best Detective, Crime and Mystery Books.Com - Information about books of the early period of mysteries and of the golden age.

This site is maintained by Linda Bertland, Philadelphia, PA. Please address any comments, additions, or corrections to info@sldirectory.com