That may be hard to read, so here it is again….
This arresting historical mystery from Thornton (the Lambda-winning author of the Boystown Mysteries) blends a striking 1913 Chicago milieu, a Pinkerton investigator’s tense first case, and urgent personal stakes as Lewis Walt, a devoted physiognomist, faces the possibility that the “science” of determining who has a “criminal character” could be turned against him. After all, Lewis is queer in an era when the term didn’t exist—but exposure of his “proclivities” would risk everything. Lewis becomes one of the storied/notorious agency’s “Pink”s when, at age 22, his comfortable life is upended by his mother’s announcement of financial distress. Lewis reluctantly turns to the last place his father worked before his passing: the Pinkerton Agency, specialists in private investigating and security but known throughout Chicago for their history in strikebreaking.
Thornton deftly juxtaposes Lewis’s private self against his family’s expectations and the brutality of a city where characters spout dialogue like “You come in here talking like that and someone will knock your block off just to say they did.” Surprises abound in this briskly told story—when Lewis tries to bungle his interview, resulting in a Holmes-esque deduction scene that ends up being more accurate than he intends. The job diffuses any romanticized notions the reader may have about private detective work, as Lewis is tasked with investigating a sudden death in working-class Packingtown. The objective: finding not the cause but a reason for insurers to deny a claim.
Lewis pursues the evolving case, facing violence and scandal while attempting to evade his mother’s meddling once and for all through a surprising new relationship. He proves an engaging protagonist—and, again, a more capable detective than he expects—while providing readers a compelling perspective on a richly realized but never sentimentalized place and time. Thornton resists imbuing Lewis with 21st-century sensibilities (he’s indifferent to both the “radical” politics of his closest friend and the suffragist views of his mother), but seeing him mature is one of the novel’s many pleasures. Readers will want more.
Marshall Thornton 