Synopses & Reviews
The story of the legendary Pinkerton detective who took down the Molly Maguires and the Wild Bunch The operatives of the Pinkertonand#8217;s National Detective Agency were renowned for their skills of subterfuge, infiltration, and investigation, none more so than James McParland. So thrilling were McParlandand#8217;s cases that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle included the cunning detective in a story along with Sherlock Holmes.
Riffenburgh digs deep into the recently released Pinkerton archives to present the first biography of McParland and the agencyand#8217;s cloak-and-dagger methods. Both action packed and meticulously researched, Pinkertonand#8217;s Great Detective brings readers along on McParlandand#8217;s most challenging cases: from young McParlandand#8217;s infiltration of the murderous Molly Maguires gang in the case that launched his career to his hunt for the notorious Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch to his controversial investigation of the Western Federation of Mines in the assassination of Idahoand#8217;s former governor.
Filled with outlaws and criminals, detectives and lawmen, Pinkertonand#8217;s Great Detective shines a light upon the celebrated secretive agency and its premier sleuth.
Review
"Locating the real James McParland amid the invective, acclaim and invention (including his own) is no easy task, and Beau Riffenburgh, author of 'Shackleton's Forgotten Expedition,' has made good use of the recently released Pinkerton archives to produce the fullest and fairest biography to date....and#160;McParland was the prototype of a character that has become an adored part of America's cultural landscape, the hard-boiled gumshoe, the lone sleuth in search of justice. He was the first private eye in the public eye, and yet he remains strangely private."
and#8212;Ben McIntyre, the New York Times
"Revisiting archives and reintroducing historical context, Riffenburgh unfolds a measured, thought-provoking tale of mine-centered mayhem....and#160;Pinkerton's Great Detectiveand#160;delivers an engrossing tale with rewarding insights into a country coping with massive economic and political changes. That process- - and may of its results - still echoes meaningfully today."
and#8212;American Historyand#160;
"Thanks to Riffenburgh, it is not hard to divine the truth. McParland was neither a demon nor a saint. This is no copout. The man belonged to an age ravaged by violence and conflict, and his job as he understood it was to capture the guilty.... He was not always in the right, but he broke with the right less often and less deliberately than the criminals he hunted. That is as much heroism as Riffenburgh, a great detective in his own right, has managed to find in this alien, tumultuous time." and#8212;The Christina Science Monitor
and#8220;Riffenburgh navigates this moral quagmire deftly, contextualizing McParland and his far more violent time, while simultaneously deconstructing the image of the and#8220;Great Detective.and#8221;
and#8212;The Daily Beast
and#8220;The biography combines an illuminating look at a fascinating life with a nuanced analysis of how Pinkertonand#8217;s agency functioned in the context of the labor movement in 19th-century America.and#8221;
and#8212;The Columbus Dispatch
About the Author
Beau Riffenburgh has a Ph.D. in history from the University of Cambridge, where he was a member of the academic staff. He has written numerous books on exploration, including Shackletonand#8217;s Forgotten Expedition. He lives in Llanarthne, Wales, UK.