Customer Reviews

Pinkerton's Secret: A Novel (John MacRae Books)

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I don't generally read historical fiction, but I was drawn to Eric Lerner's novel "Pinkerton's Secret" for its subject matter. Scots born Allan Pinkerton, a radical Chartist who immigrated to America in 1842, is a fascinating, problematic figure and an integral part of American history. Perhaps best known for establishing the first detective agency in the U.S., Pinkerton was also a Union spy during the Civil War. The agency was later connected to some rather unpleasant union-busting, and at one point, Pinkerton formed a private secret service organization.

In "Pinkerton's Secret" author and screenwriter Eric Lerner recreates Pinkerton's remarkable life through his intriguing relationship with Kate Warne, his first female detective. Thrilling, compelling, and highly original, this novel is cleverly written in the form of a memoir narrated by a now elderly, dying Pinkerton. The novel begins with Pinkerton's initial meeting with Kate Warne when she applies for a position as a detective. Pinkerton, although an enlightened man for his times, is skeptical that a woman is capable of sustained disguise and deception, and so he initially dismisses the possibility of employing any females. Kate Warne, however, proceeds to show Pinkerton just how complex and unfathomable she is, and from the very beginnings of their long relationship, Pinkerton, a man who prides himself on being an expert on human nature, finds himself nonplussed by Kate's implacable, enigmatic manner.

Part historical adventure story and part romance, Pinkerton's relationship with the remarkable Kate Warne is central to this rip-roaring read. The story is set against one of the most remarkable periods of American history, and with the Civil War unleashed, these are turbulent years, but Pinkerton's memoirs reach back through time to include details of his life as a radical abolitionist and his active involvement with the Underground Railroad. In these unprecedented times, and amidst strife and boundless opportunities, Pinkerton relates his transformation from penniless, subversive Scot to eminently respectable bastion of society. While Pinkerton argues he had "no ambition for the wealth, power and peculiar social status," he recognizes that "the greatest opportunity America offers a newcomer is the chance to discover what we are really made of." And Pinkerton, at times inflexible and a firm believer in "the ends justify the means," evolves as the country undergoes vast changes, eventually becoming "the inventor of the modern science of criminal detection."

Many well-known historical figures come to life within these pages. Pinkerton, no respecter of persons, is in awe of the terrifying figure of John Brown: "the most color-blind white man" he ever met and he acknowledges, "Listening to the words of John Brown was the closest I have ever come to experiencing awe." Lincoln--obviously central to the Civil War--also appears, and he is presented here as a troubling figure--a man whose inability to take decisive action annoys Pinkerton.

While the country is ripped in two by racism, bigotry and war, Pinkerton and Kate Warne are thrown into each other's company as they take enormous risks for the Union cause. Circumstances dictate an abandonment of societal norms, and Pinkerton and his detectives including the "reckless" Timothy Webster are forced to step outside of their lives as they spy for the North. Fascinated by the unfathomable Kate Warne, Pinkerton gradually, almost grudgingly, comes to admire her, and then finds that he is falling in love, with Kate--a woman who is his intellectual equal.

Not overburdened with lengthy descriptions, "Pinkerton's Secret" is an amazingly visual, character-driven tale that should appeal to a wide range of readers. Fast-paced, exciting and highly readable, this marvelous novel is a well-crafted tale of some remarkable times, but to me, the most fascinating aspect of the novel is Pinkerton. A vital man, vibrant and alive with boundless drive and a strange sort of ambition, America's greatest detective ignores clues regarding his deepest emotions. Betrayed by his own feelings, he's ultimately humbled by the mysteries of the human heart.

"I had done it all in a way I could never have imagined, but who can? Much less imagine that it can end, suddenly, with such stunning finality?"

In 1856 in Chicago, Alan Pinkerton forms his Pinkerton National Detective Agency by hiring several strong seemingly trust worthy men; women need not apply and he does not expect any will.

He is proven wrong when pretty Kate Warne applies for the position of Pinkerton Agent. Pinkerton says no, but Warne is persistent so he hires her with his plan to give her soft jobs and less pay than his male operatives. However he quickly changes his mind when she turns out to be one of top agents as he gives her increasingly more difficult cases to work. Attracted to one another, they begin an affair that turns ugly once Pinkerton's wife learns that Kate is under the cover not undercover.

This is a fabulous biographical fiction story that provides the audience a deep look at the personal and professional lives of Alan Pinkerton and the first female agent Kate Warne. The story line is action-packed from the onset whether it is in Chicago setting up the agency, on a case in DC leading to the formation of the Secret Service, or working to uncover Confederate spies in the capital. Readers will appreciate this superb historical tale.

Harriet Klausner

llan Pinkerton embodied a number of American traits. He was a revolutionary, fleeing his native Scotland with his wife ahead of arrest for being a Chartist; he reinvented himself in boomtown Chicago from barrel-maker to private detective, one of the nation's first; he crossed money and power lines working for the railroads and, during the Civil War, for the Union Army and President Lincoln; and made sure everyone knew it, self-promoting himself so effectively that the unblinking eye that was the symbol of his company was detached from his name and entered the culture as the private eye.

He also spoke truth to power, helping run slaves to their freedom on the Underground Railroad, and spoke power to truth, as the company founded by the agitator for the rights of man became a union-buster for the railroad barons. That, too, makes him an American.

Out of all this material, comes Pinkerton's Secret, a sometimes off-kilter "memoir" by Eric Lerner. The Pinkerton in this book is a masterful fictional character. He's a man of strong passions, a cocksure sense of himself, and a view of American history that would warm the heart of a besotted leftist steeped in Chomsky and Zinn. He doesn't think much of the Founding Fathers ("While that addled inventor Ben Franklin and his Yankee friends were going on about tea taxes, Washington and Jefferson and Madison were hiding in some back room of Independence Hall, giggling like girls over the scam they were pulling up here in Philadelphia"); nor of Lincoln, who he called among other things "a snake-oil salesman." "If you cut through Lincoln's twaddle, you found nothing except a cauldron of ambition."

But at heart, he's soft pillows and lace. The lace is made of stainless-steel and spiky, and the pillows are formed from concrete, but it turns out that Pinkerton has a weakness for female approval, particularly from one Mrs. Kate Warne. She was his first female detective, and from the beginning, he was smitten with her charms. During their first interview, as he quizzed her about her belief in god and the need for a detective to deceive, he notes, "Her body seemed to press outward against her dress, her female form demanding my attention."

Let's face it, when you're married to a woman who believes "her primary mission as a servant of God is to prevent Allan Pinkerton from ending up in Hell" and will only have sex with you on the Sabbath, it's not surprising that another woman would draw Allan's eye.

Mrs. Warne got the job.

Pinkerton's Secret takes us on an episodic tour of American history, told completely through Pinkerton's eyes. This cuts both ways. He tells us exactly what he wants us to see -- and from the above examples his opinions can be as bracing as a shot of whiskey, neat -- but he's equally adept at what he wants to leave out. He goes into detail about his abolitionist work before the war, when his house was a stop on the Underground Railway, and how he and his agents uncovered the plot to kill President Lincoln on his way to Washington. There's also nothing about his shoddy intelligence work for Gen. George McClellan during the first great campaign against the Confederations, in which his overestimation of Lee's army gave the general reason enough to delay battle and cry out for more reinforcements.

Instead, between recountings of glorious episodes, Pinkerton describes his relationship with Mrs. Warne, in the words of that time, "grew warm." There are moments of passion --"She lifted her left leg over my hip and reached down for my cock as our eyes remained wide open. Then I was inside her." -- but not nearly as often as you'd think. Because what surfaces is a classic soap opera set-up: they love each other, but she's engaged to Timothy Webster, another one of his agents, leaving him suspended between his deteriorating marriage and his passion for Mrs. Warne.

Because at heart, Pinkerton needed a woman's approval: "when it comes to women, men are meagerly provisioned beasts who must beg for the fulfillment of their needs." The man who, his wife observed bitterly, would violate the law on one hand while upholding it with the other, found himself trapped, whether by upbringing or social code, it didn't matter, when it came to the delectable and alluring Mrs. Warne.

And that, in the end, is the central irony of Pinkerton's story, that America's detective couldn't solve the greatest mystery of all: the needs of the human heart.

* * * *

PS: That was a lovely way to end the review, eh? But it seems I haven't expressed a firm opinion about "Pinkerton's Secret," so let's try again.

I liked Pinkerton as a character. He's dogmatic, profane, and carries that self-assurence that seems to be a hallmark of pre-politically correct America. But I'm not so sure about the other characters. Mrs. Warne, Pinkerton's wife, his boys who grow up to take over the company; maybe because we see them through his eyes, we find it hard to grasp their needs, their opinions. Pinkerton seems to get into the way. This could be intentional. It certainly is realistic. But it does remove the climax from the story. Just as in real life, as we tend to fade away in the end, so does Allan Pinkerton.

This is such a fun book. Lerner's Pinkerton is brash, opinionated, conceited, and almost crushingly lonely for someone to understand him and his passions. Not overtly, he'd rather cut out his liver than admit a weakness, if he were self-aware enough to realize he had one, which he's not. But to my read, it's there - in the edge of disappointment every time his wife proves that while she knows exactly WHO he is, she has no inkling of WHY; in his reverence for John Brown, who needed nothing but his Cause to the exclusion of all else; and in his helpless love for Kate, who listens to his ideas, works at his side, improves his plans and sometimes lets him take the credit. (Obviously, I disagree with the reviewer who thought the characters emotionally distant.)

With Pinkerton as narrator, the reader hurtles through his slice of history - the Abolition movement, the run-up to the War, the politics behind Lincoln's presidency and the War itself and aftermath. I don't think I've ever googled more when reading a novel, or been more delighted with what I found. I knew only the broadest outline of the history of the Pinkertons when I started, so much of the information was new to me. Lerner has done a fabulous job marshaling the facts and wrapping his narrative around them - no small feat, because Pinkerton was absolutely a man of action and he didn't leave a lot of blank space to fill in.

I particularly liked Lerner's approach to the critical roles women played as spies for both sides during the war. Rather than cast the women (including and especially Kate) as abnormal Amazons or feminist figureheads, he lets Pinkerton view them simply as capable operatives for whom being a woman is part of the skill set.

I plan to read a lot more about the Pinkerton Agency and its founder in the near future, but I doubt I'll enjoy any of it more than this. Thank you, Mr. Lerner, for a wonderful book.

I purchased "Pinkerton's Secret" because the subject looked interesting and the author seemed to have a flair. I read in in between a few other works of historical fiction. If you compare Lerner to Cornwell or any of the other great historical fiction authors you will be sadly disappointed. Maybe if you used Sidney Sheldon as a basis you can come closer.
"Pinkerton's Secret" s a uneven, at times uninteresting, view of Pinkerton. How can you treat the subject without some mention of his failed intelligence on Confederate troop strength, not once, but many times, he offered his opinion to Union generals? Why treat the threat to Lincoln in Baltimore for over 40 pages then use two pages for the actual murder?
The book reads well and quickly. It offers some fun insights. But Cussler's The Chase does a far better job dealing with similar personalities. It is when you compare "Pinkerton's Secret" to Cussler that the greatest disappointment becomes evident. Far too little action, far too little information and far too little drama. So, all in all, with the price of books going up, spend the money on 7 gallons of gas or 2 gallons of milk and wait till something better comes along.

Eric Lerner's Pinkerton's Secret purports to be the memoir of Allan Pinkerton, who founded the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in Chicago in 1855. The Pinkerton Agency grew to become the first national police force. Pinkerton and his agents policed the nation's railroads, for example, and they infiltrated the Confederate forces during the Civil War to smuggle information to the Union. Lerner's Pinkerton, writing in the mid-1880s, describes some of his cases and his role during the War as well as his involvement in the Abolitionist movement: Pinkerton was an accolyte of John Brown--a relationship which, at least as Lerner's novel has it, proved fatal to Pinkerton's marriage--and his house was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Atop this historical scaffolding, Lerner has written a romance: Pinkerton begins his account in 1856, when he hired his first female operative, Kate Warne, an eminently competent woman with whom he would eventually have an affair.

My copy of Lerner's book does not include a note about the story's historicity. (It's possible that other editions will include one; if not, they should.) As such it is difficult to know from the book itself how much of Lerner's story is based on historical evidence. A bit of Googling and a gander at Lerner's own (nicely designed) site suggest that the story is firmly rooted in the evidence, though he has of course taken liberties with what is known of the relationship between Pinkerton and Kate Warne.

Pinkerton's Secret is not an edge-of-your-seat read, although some of the material Lerner had to work with (e.g., espionage within the Confederate ranks) would have lent itself to such a treatment. And Lerner's characters do not grip our emotions. But the book is a decent read and a pleasant enough way to swallow some history.

-- Debra Hamel