Bucholz and the Detectives

Pinkerton #11

by Allan Pinkerton

Bucholz and the Detectives (1880) is one of more than a dozen mystery novels by the real-life detective, Allan Pinkerton. He founded the Pinkerton Agency, the first detective agency in the United States. The novels promoted his agency, and he set the style for police procedurals ever supposedly true cases that he and his Pinkerton men cracked thanks to each detective's "pure and honest heart" (and some tricky undercover work). Here, the crime is murder and robbery. The victim is John Henry Schulte, a rich old German immigrant to Connecticut, killed with an axe. The state attorney suspects the man's young servant, William Bucholz, but can't prove it. And Schulte had a tragic past of screams in the night, including a murderous enemy in the old country. Pinkerton goes to work, applying his famous maxim that, "We never sleep."

Genres: Classics, True Crime

152 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 2009

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

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another engrossing case presented by legendary detective Allan Pinkerton. This one deals with the murder of an elderly German expatriate.

[Max Kershner · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Al Lock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting book, rather clearly written to publicize the success of a Pinkerton detective in a case of murder, and definitely written in a style that matches the late 19th or early 20th century. Not a great work, but a good example of many of the works of the era.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like these detective books by Pinkerton! This is the second that I've read.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The original "True Crime" story, Allan Pinkerton wrote of one of his cases making it sound like a novel. Interesting case; interesting read.