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

• The magazines indexed in William G. Contento's Mystery Short Fiction index;
• Contents for many of the issues that were not located for the above indexes (as well as some issues the previous compilers were unaware of);
• Coverage of many English-language magazines published outside the US that were excluded from the previous indexes;
• Coverage of many magazines that have been published since the previous indexes were published;
• Coverage of a small number of magazines that the previous compilers overlooked;
• Where available, more detailed information on the contents of certain magazines (including story lengths and details of non-fiction contents).

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