Criminal reminiscences and detective sketches

This book is a collection of autobiographical stories of investigations by Allan Pinkerton, a Scottish immigrant who became Chicago’s first detective in 1849. In 1850 he formed a partnership later known as the ‘Pinkerton National Detective Agency’. He developed some investigative techniques such as ‘shadowing’ a suspect and ‘assuming a role’, or undercover work.

This book appeared nine years before the first Sherlock Holmes stories.