Carol Crigger writes westerns, mysteries and sci-fi/fantasy novels. She’s a 2-time Spur Award
finalist, and winner of the EPIC Award in the Western/Historical category.
She
tells me a favourite of her own novels is FOUR
FURLONGS (written as CAROL WRIGHT KRIGGER) part of her CHINA BOHANNON series.
China works
as a bookkeeper for her uncle’s detective agency in Spokane, Washington c. 1900.
But when an abused teenager brings her a tale about a murdered brother and a race
horse being mistreated, China turns detective herself, plunging into danger in
Spokane’s seamy underbelly.
Here’s KATE
WARNE, the first female detective we have record of.
Born in New York State in 1833, she went to ALAN PINKERTON,
head of the Pinkerton Detective Agency in 1856 to ask for a job as a detective.
Pinkerton
said "It is not the custom to employ women detectives!" Kate argued that
women could be "most useful in worming out secrets in many places which
would be impossible for a male detective… Woman would be able to befriend the
wives and girlfriends of suspected criminals and gain their confidence… Men become
braggarts when they are around women who encourage them to boast." Pinkerton
took her on. By 1860, he was so impressed by her abilities he placed Warne in
charge of his new Female Detective Bureau.
Pinkerton described her as: ‘[a] commanding person,
with clear cut, expressive features ... a slender, brown-haired woman, graceful
in her movements and self-possessed.’
Her most
famous role was in the so-called ‘Baltimore Plot’ in February 1861, just before
the outbreak of the American Civil War. Warne posed as a rich southern lady
visiting Baltimore in order to infiltrate social gatherings of secessionist sympathisers.
She discovered there was a plot to assassinate President-elect ABRAHAM LINCOLN as
his train passed through Baltimore. To escape, Lincoln was forced to disguise
himself as an invalid. Kate posed as his brother and helped smuggle him off the
train before the assassins struck. It is
said that Kate Warne didn’t sleep while providing a bodyguard role for Lincoln,
thus inspiring the Pinkertons motto: ‘we never sleep.'
ALAN
PINKERTON with PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Kate continued working as a Pinkerton Detective
throughout and after the Civil War. In investigating the attempted murder of a
CAPTAIN SUMNER and a MRS. PATTMORE, she disguised herself as a fortune teller.
Pinkerton named Kate Warne one of the five best
detectives that he had. But her career was cut short at the age of 34 or 35
when, in 1868, she died of ‘congestion of the lungs.’
Kate was played by MARTHA MaCISAAC in the Canadian TV series ‘The Pinkertons.’
The
character played by KATHERINE WARREN in the excellent train-bound 1951 thriller
‘The Tall Target’ (about ‘The
Baltimore Plot’) is clearly based on Kate Warne.
Reviews of FOUR FURLONGS:
‘Crigger
has created an enchanting heroine in China, with just the right amount of
courage and vulnerability. Four Furlongs is enjoyable action mystery.’
‘Excellent
exciting suspense western.’
‘Great summer
read… A delightful period mystery with a charming main character.’
‘A rollicking
and absorbing mystery… It's a giddy ride from beginning to end... I
was delighted to find a mystery that afforded genuine suspense, laughs, and an
authentic setting.'
