Women Detectives in Fact and Fiction

On August 22, 1856, private detective Allan Pinkerton looked up to see a woman standing at the door of his Chicago office. She introduced herself as Kate Warne and proclaimed herself in need of a job. She was not, however, looking to be a secretary, as Pinkerton first thought. No, she wanted to be a detective. Under Pinkerton, she became America’s first-known female private eye and one of his finest sleuths.

Read more about lady detectives in this excerpt from PISTOLS AND PETTICOATS: 175 YEARS OF LADY DETECTIVES IN FACT AND FICTION by Erika Janik (Beacon Press, 2016).