The Pinks

June 1, 2017
In 1856, Allan Pinkerton, of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, hired Kate Warne as his first female operative. At a time when women were restricted to their homes, Warne convinced Pinkerton that female operatives could be used for undercover investigations. Enss pieces together the stories of those female spies from Pinkerton's writings, newspaper accounts, and personal memoirs. The Pinkerton agency is still around today, but Enss focuses on early operatives and their cases. Much of the action centers around the Civil War, when female spies posed as wives, society women, nurses, and even fortune-tellers to collect information about the Southern army. Several agents are profiled, including Elizabeth Van Lew and Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, who nursed Northern soldiers deep in the South and sent strategic war information to Union troops. But the real star here is Warne, who distinguished herself by protecting president-elect Lincoln, helping solve a murder, and trapping a Southern spy. Risking their lives to solve crimes and gather intelligence, these pioneer female detectives proved early on that women could be successful in a traditionally male world.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)