The Butcher's Kingdom: An Allan Pinkerton Tale -

Jay Bonansinga

Digital

2008

50 páginas

1h 40m

ISBN-1: 0

This is the logical extreme of my work as a suspense and crime novelist, on such books as TWISTED, as well as my background as a non-fiction author on such works as THE SINKING OF THE EASTLAND. The real-life Allan Pinkerton was, arguably, one of America's first true city detectives, and the world he inhabited - antebellum Chicago - is as strange and exotic to readers in 2006 as an alien planet. I see this story as being the origin of a whole new series, and I am delighted its inaugural edition will appear here!

Resenhas (1)

5 (Perfeito)

Like Having A Drink With E.A. Poe and Allan Pinkerton

What about having a drink with the first detective of the USA? This what it feels like reading this Jay Bonasinga's tale. Imagine a middle-19th-century tavern situated in Chicago. Through the front door enters the famous Allan Pinkerton, a 25-year-old Scotsman. He is anxious to talk about a very different case that he had to solve, and sit at your table. "Well my friend, as you may know my Chicago has been having some problems nowadays," Pinkerton started to explain the city situation.

Chicago by this time had only 20.000 inhabitants and was suffering the consequences of the development: the coming of immigrants, the devastation of the forests, poverty, misery and the meat packing industry growing and a wave of strange crimes taking place. Allan Pinkerton the one that latter would establish the first detective agency of the United States, Pinkerton National Detective Agency, was the one in charge to solve the packinghouse-men crimes.

"Strangely with no clear reasons some men that worked in packing houses were found murdered. So I was asked to find what was responsible for that. No matter if it was a human, wolf, coyote or maybe something that doesn't belong to our world. Thinking about the last option I decided to ask for somebody's help. Somebody that was used to deal with the netherworld", Pinkerton continued telling how he decided to think about having a partner.

A very thin old man with black hair and a mustache is coming now in our direction. He occupies the third chair and introduces himself: "Edgar Allan Poe. I would be glad to join you gentlemen." Poe famous for his tales surrounding the mystery and the macabre is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. On the other hand, Alan Pinkerton developed several investigative techniques that are still used today - shadowing, assuming a role and others. Two apparently different men that have something in common, the passion for the unknown, were put together to find the murderer. Poe asks for a brandy, in fact he prefers some laudanum but as we are in public, a brandy would appear more respectable. The other Allan, Pinkerton, a non-alcohol drinker asks only for some fresh water. You may ask: How these two different men could be at the same table? If you had read the novel "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" you may had a clue.

This novel wrote by Poe in 1841 introduces to the world C. Auguste Dupin, the first true detective in fiction. He was in Paris when he decides to solve the mysterious brutal murder of two women in that city after a suspect has been arrested. At the murder scene, Dupin finds a suspicious hair that does not appear to be human. Because none of the witnesses can agree on the language the murderer spoke, he concludes that the murderer was not a human at all. Dupin decides to put an advertisement in the newspaper asking if anyone has lost an "Ourang-Outang".

Pinkerton decided to explain why this novel influenced his decision to call for Poe's help and the connection to the main plot of the packinghouse-men crimes. " So, Later Dupin discovered that not only the murderer was an animal but also that its owner admits he has abused the animal with a whip. The world around is another time influencing the behavior of living things, transforming innocent creatures into murderers. Unfortunately the same occurred in the glens of Chicago."

And now the quiet Poe talks with a whisper, "Reading this tale you will find out how our partner and friendship began and how Pinkerton brought some motivation to my empty sad short life. Caveat Emptor my friend." They called the waiter to close the account.