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Crime, Mystery & Gangster Fiction Magazine Index

The Crime, Mystery & Gangster Fiction Magazine Index (or Crime Fiction Index in short) is an attempt to provide an index to crime fiction magazines in the same style as the classic Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Weird Fiction Magazine Index compiled by Stephen T. Miller and William G. Contento. It is available both in CD-ROM format from Locus Press and as a series of luxury hardback volumes from the Battered Silicon Dispatch Box.

The index is based (with permission) on the two classic indexes in this field (both now long out of print):

  1. Mystery, Detective, and Espionage Fiction: A Checklist of Fiction in U.S. Pulp Magazines, 1915-1974 compiled by Michael L. Cook and Stephen T. Miller
  2. Monthly Murders: A Checklist and Chronological Listing Of Fiction In The Digest-Size Mystery Magazines In The United States And England compiled by Michael L. Cook
As well as making the contents of these classic indexes available to a modern audience, the new index also includes a huge amount of new material, including: The new index also corrects many of the errors that inadvertently crept into the previous indexes.

As can be imagined with a project of this magnitude (comprising over 15,000 issues from over 850 different magazines), the compilers would welcome any offers of assistance from anyone who has access to some of these magazines and is prepared to help out.

In particular:

  1. The core of the index has been compiled from OCR scans of the two original indexes, rather than from the magazines themselves, and as such inevitably reproduce some of the mistakes inherent in those indexes (as well as undoubtedly introducing some new ones). We would love to hear from anyone who has a collection (whether large or small) of crime fiction magazines and would be prepared to compare the relevant sections of the index against their collections.

  2. There are still a number of small gaps in earlier magazines (see here for a full list), but we would particularly love to hear from anyone who has any copies of a handful of US magazines for which there are significant gaps:
    • Detective and Murder Mysteries/Murder Mysteries
    • Midnight Mystery Stories
    • Mystery Buff
    • Over My Dead Body!
    • Real Detective (Tales)
    • Red Herring Mystery Magazine
    • Scientific Detective (Annual) (not the same as Scientific Detective Monthly)
    • True Gang Life
    • The Underworld (Magazine)
  3. Although the index contains many hundred issues of magazines published outside the US, the coverage of these is still woefully incomplete and we would love to hear from anybody who has crime magazines published in the UK (particularly reprint editions of US pulps), Australia, Canada, South Africa or New Zealand (or, indeed, any other country publishing crime magazines in the English language).

A list of all the magazines that are included in the index can be found here while a detailed list of the magazines and issues for which contents information is still needed can be found here.

If you think you can help with any of the above, or would just like more detail on the project, then please - all contributions are welcome, no matter how small! Even though the index has now been published, there will (hopefully) be new editions every year or so which will include new and corrected information.

Meanwhile I would like to thank all of those who have already contributed (directly or indirectly) to the project:

Bob Adey James Felton Bruce Kiefer John Rebelo
John Apostolou Richard Fidczuk Carol Kilgore Stephen D. Rogers
Mike Ashley David Fingerman David LePlae Nichole Rounds
René Beaulieu Graeme Flanagan Tom Lesser Richard Saunders
Kimberley Becker Jessica Frasca Ron Lewis Paulette Schmidt
Guy Belleranti Sara Frommer Steve Lewis Robert Silverberg
John Benson James Furlong Lance Liddle Steven Slutsky
Dave Benz Gary G. Garner Dennis Lien David Lee Smith
Victor Berch Terry Gibbons John Locke David W. Smith
Paul Berglund Millie Gill John Loder Brett Snyder
Dennis Billows Scott Green Matt Louis Earl Staggs
Terry Black Douglas Greene Gary Lovisi Peter Stekel
Richard Bleiler John Gunnison Jeffrey Marks Doug Stewart
Jerry Boyajian Peter Haining Todd Mason Kate Stine
Brian Earl Brown Mark Halegua Andy McAleer Carter Swart
Donal B. Buchanan Andrew Hall Kevin McCoy Larry D. Sweazy
Jan Burke Rick Hall Alastair McLean Robert Thompson
Jeffrey B. Burton Katherine Harper Steve Miller Paul Tomlinson
Tony Burton Darren Heil Richard Moore Al Tonik
Ben Chapman Monte Herridge Marv Morrison Virgil Utter
Steve Cherry Marion Moore Hill Frank Motler Randy Vanderbeek
Jan Christensen Joyce Holland Tim Myers Morgan Wallace
Bill Cissna Steve Holland Kris Neri Rodney Walters
Bill Crider Elorise Holstad Francis M. Nevins Mike Ward
Tom Daniels Joe Horka, Jr. Scott Owen Robert Weinberg
O'Neil de Noux Maria Huybens Terry O'Neill Mike Whale
William Denton Bob Iles Chris Parente Chris Wood
Paul Di Filippo Patrick Irelan Curt Phillips Martin Morse Wooster
Alistair Durie Alfred Jan Rob Preston Peter Youngman
Steven Edwards Keith Jeffrey John Pugmire Terry Zobeck
John Eggeling Kenneth R. Johnson John Raab Gene Zombolas
Peter Enfantino Tom Johnson David Rachels Endre Zsoldos
Barry Ergang Chuck Juzek Joe Rainone  
Larry Estep David Kelleher James Reasoner  
Tracey Caulfield and the staff at Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne
Tom Tytor and the staff at Library & Archives Canada
My apologies to anyone I have missed - please remind me!