The Pinkerton Casebook

by Allan Pinkerton, Bruce Derle (Editor)

Allan Pinkerton is famous as the founder of the detective agency that still bears his name. What is less well known is that he was a prolific author who can lay claim to being one of the originators of the 'private eye' genre. Even the phrase 'private eye' can find its roots in the agency's a large, all-seeing eye with the slogan 'We Never Sleep.'In "The Pinkerton Casebook", Victorian crime expert Bruce Durie has gathered together the best of Pinkerton's writings, including accounts of how he foiled an attempt on the life of President Abraham Lincoln, his infiltration of the notorious Molly Maguires gang, and his dogged pursuit of Frank and Jesse James.Pinkerton was born in Glasgow in 1819. Involved as a young man in radical politics, he was forced to emigrate to America in 1842. "The Pinkerton Casebook" contains his account of his very first case, which came about when he stumbled upon a gang of counterfeiters in a small, rural settlement of Scottish immigrants in Dundee, Illinois.The books Pinkerton published in his lifetime were hugely popular, influencing and inspiring authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle and Mark Twain.Dashiell Hammett worked as a Pinkerton agent before he became a writer in the detective genre himself.

214 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Notorious agency of Scottish-American detective Allan Pinkerton broke strikes and disrupted labor efforts to unionize.

People best know this spy for creating the national agency. In 1849, people in Chicago first appointed Pinkerton. In the 1850s, he partnered with Chicago attorney Edward Rucker in forming the northwestern police agency, later known nationally and still in existence today as Pinkerton consulting and investigations, a subsidiary of Securitas Aktiebolag.

Business insignia of Pinkerton included a wide open eye with the caption, "We never sleep."

People posthumously published exploits of his agents, perhaps some ghostwritten for promotion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_P...

Reviews

[David Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of an historical record of America at the time than a view into the mind of a detective, this book nonetheless is full of great anecdotes and characters. Pinkerton's writing is impressive but suffers from being too descriptive to the detriment of the flow and consequently it doesn't quite read as easy as it could. Still an interesting look into the mind and character of the man himself given that it is in his own words.

[Elizabeth Judd Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the actual writing of Pinkerton, the introduction and notes before each story annoyed me to the point that I didn't want to pick up the book and read it. I have a feeling they might work better in a lecture setting, spoken or more accurately performed (the editor seems to be going for something entertaining), but written down they just sound weak when I think they are meant to be humorous.