Pinkerton’s Secret
by Eric Lerner
Published by Henry Holt (March release)
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Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann
Eric Lerner has been a screenwriter for over 20 years. This is his first novel.
Allan Pinkerton is an enigmatic figure, born in poverty in Scotland. He became a rebel there before emigrating to America in 1842, settling near Chicago. By 1850 he had abandoned his trade of cooper (making wooden barrels) and began the first national detective agency.
In the days when there was no federal law enforcement, his was the first agency to cross state lines in pursuit of criminals. He began the Secret Service, his agency began working as spies for the government during the Civil War.
This novel is more about his passion: the abolition movement. He provided a stage on the Underground Railroad, and met John Brown. He and his operatives foiled the planned Baltimore attack on President Lincoln before his inauguration. He hired the first female detective, Kate Warne, a young widow.
In Pinkerton’s Secret the story is told in the voice of Allan Pinkerton, his feelings about Lincoln, slavery, John Brown, injustice, Kate Warne and his wife and sons, are laid bare. My favorite scene is one Christmas when he went home to Chicago and his family, to find a bunch of strangers being entertained by his wife—war profiteers hoping for his help in influencing the government to buy their products to supply the army, bringing extravagant gifts. Sound familiar?
I would say the biggest failing of this book is that it is too short! I would like more of the firm’s successes detailed. The relationship of Pinkerton and Warne was a difficult one. He felt guilty for betraying his wife, yet his wife was constantly betraying him in many small ways.
If you want to learn more about him, Thirty Years a Detective by Pinkerton, and Allan Pinkerton: The First Private Eye by James MacKay are in print.
Armchair Interviews says: Good to read more about such a famous name.