Forgotten Detective Fiction, Restored
The mysteries that thrilled millions — rescued from crumbling archives and restored for a new generation.
Tales of Murder Press publishes meticulously restored editions of classic American detective fiction. No AI. No sloppy scans. Just thirty-plus years of editorial craft, one book at a time.
Old & Young King Brady, Detectives
A veteran New York detective and his young partner, on cases from Chinatown to the Old West. Between 1899 and 1912, more than 1,000 Brady stories were published. Over 30 of the best are restored and ready to read, with more on the way.
Bradys books count toward the same discount as Old Cap Collier, so mix and match.
Browse the Bradys
Archive scan → restored edition
The Mission
Rescuing stories the world nearly lost
Between the 1880s and 1920s, dime novel detectives were the most popular fiction in America. Millions of copies sold. Then libraries trashed them, academics dismissed them, and collectors hoarded whatever survived.
I've spent over a decade hunting down the originals — crumbling pamphlets in university archives and private collections. Each book gets thirty to forty hours of line-by-line restoration: OCR reconstruction, punctuation correction, and modern typesetting that honors the original design.
Every comma corrected. Every em dash placed. No broken scans. No AI butchery. Just obsessive literary archaeology.
What Readers Are Saying
It's like discovering a hidden vault of detective stories that time forgot.
Doris P.
“You can tell these were made by someone who loves the originals, not just another public domain dump.”
Chase H.
“Better than most modern thrillers. These old writers knew how to keep you turning pages.”
Ray T., 63
“No foul language, no over-the-top ****. Just good clean murder and mayhem!”
Audrey Z.
“My grandfather would have loved these. Heck, I love these. Real stories with real detective work.”
Harold M., 71
“Feels like finding a secret stash of old-school pulp gold.”
Felix Q.
Growing the Library
More collections are on the way
The Bradys and Old Cap Collier are just the beginning. We're restoring detective fiction from across the golden age of American pulp.
Sax Rohmer
Exotic intrigue and relentless suspense from the master of early 20th-century thrillers.
coming soon
Pioneers of Mystery
The earliest mystery novels — Wilkie Collins, Baroness Orczy, Émile Gaboriau, and more.
coming soon
Vintage True Crime
Real cases, real danger — true crime from an era before forensics changed everything.
coming soon
Be first to hear when the vault opens
New restorations, new collections, and reader-only offers. No spam, just good stories.