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. 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.

Author Biography

Bruce Durie has had a long career as a medical and science writer, with many articles in publications as diverse as the New Scientist and the Guardian. He is also a playwright and novelist. His previous books include Medicine, which was short-listed for the first COPUS Prize, and Dick Donovan: The Glasgow Detective (also published by Mercat Press).