She introduces us to him via a newspaper article (pg. Hannigan keeps her imagination on a much firmer leash with Lincoln. It also grounds us in a world where women aren’t expected to do certain types of jobs.
This fictional interchange pays homage to the confusion that people had about Kate and her working relationship to Mr. ‘I do not file his papers or keep his books. “‘Are you a secretary for that Pinkerton? Or a bookkeeper?’ With Kate, Hannigan even gives a nod to the fact that people couldn’t wrap their heads around the idea of her being a detective. Pinkerton was an abolitionist in real life, Hannigan incorporates references to his secret life as an abolitionist into the story. She grounded her characters in research and then extrapolated personalities and mannerisms that would work for her story while honoring their roles in history.įor example, since Mr. Pinkerton, she allowed herself license to turn them into full-fledged characters in her novel. With characters such as Kate Warne and, to a certain extent, Mr. The subplot about Nell’s father, Kate’s husband, and their involvement with the Underground Railroad just before the Civil War add interesting historical details.Ĭons: Although the letters between Nell and her friend Jemma helped explain some necessary background, they sometimes felt like an interruption of the main plot.Woman believed to be Kate Warne (cropped from a photo of Pinkerton and his associates) Both she and Nell are strong, spunky characters that are fun to read about, and their adventures read like a series of 19 th-century Nancy Drew mysteries. Pros: The author’s note explains that Kate (Kitty) Warne was a real person, the first female detective in America. Their final case brings them to Baltimore, where Nell proves herself once and for all by helping Aunt Kitty thwart an assassination attempt on the new president, Abraham Lincoln.
But there’s no other place for Nell, so the two of them end up traveling undercover to Philadelphia, Mississippi, and New York City to solve a series of mysteries. And secondly, she’s too busy with her career as the first woman detective in America, working for Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency. First of all, she blames Nell’s father for her husband’s murder.
Aunt Kitty has no interest in taking in an orphan. With no other family left, she is unceremoniously dumped on her dead uncle’s widow, Aunt Kitty, in Chicago. Summary: 11-year-old Nell Warne has had a tough life, seeing her mother die, then her two brothers, and finally, her estranged father. Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
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