Lincoln’s Spymaster

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I ordered this for my 15-year-old nephew, but read it before he did. I found this book well written and very informative.

Great book!!

This teen and tween biography of Allan Pinkerton, by Samantha Seiple, is just the ticket to get students interested in reading non-fiction.

<em>Lincoln’s Spymaster</em> is an easy, engaging read. Seiple’s writing moves along crisply, telling us what we need to know and making the work of the spy, Allan Pinkerton, sound exciting and dangerous (which it surely was). The book is broken down to two parts, the first following Pinkerton and some of his associates, as spies during the Civil War era. What turned out to be a case of protecting the president (Abraham Lincoln) started out when the president of the railroad was concerned that there were plots to blow up train tracks. The details of Pinkerton’s involvement are fascinating, and his use of disguise to infiltrate the plot has all the makings of a modern-day thriller.

The second half of the book follows a slight change in Pinkerton’s work as he moves being a spy to what today we might refer to as a bounty hunter, chasing down criminals. In this portion of the book we learn that Pinkerton crossed paths with some of the most notorious outlaws of the wild west, and the very name of the Pinkerton Agency became synonymous with successfully “getting their man.”

The Pinkerton’s suffered a few set-backs, including not being able to protect criminals they had captured, from being killed by lynch-mobs, including criminals that were turned over in an extradition from Canada (which created some bad relations with our northern neighbors for the government).

The book is well-furnished with photographs. My ARC didn’t have the pictures identified, though many of the pictures I recognized from other history books, and more were fairly easy to determine what they were representing.

For an adult reader, this book is very easy reading. I read through the entire book in a bit over an hour. It will be similarly easy for teens to get caught up in this book. It moves along well and is very exciting, with lots of great history. This is a case where people will learn something, without realizing that they are learning! I wish I’d had more history books like this when I was a student!

Looking for a good book? <em>Lincoln’s Spymaster: Allan Pinkerton</em>, by Samantha Seiple, is a wonderful biography for teen and tween readers and is sure to capture and hold their interest.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

I picked up this title as an audio book through my library because the title intrigued me and I have an interest in history in general, and Civil War history. When I checked it out I did not know that this was a title written for a younger audience. While the target audience meant that Samantha couldn’t go into the greater depth and detail that an “adult” book would have offered, I was very happy with the information provided.

Lincoln’s Spymaster focuses on Allan Pinkerton, the man behind the most famous detective agency ever in the United States: Pinkerton’s Detective Agency. Samantha does a good job of showing us who Allan Pinkerton was, from his assistance during the Civil War in not only keeping Lincoln safe (Pinkerton and his operatives were instrumental in foiling an assassination attempt before Lincoln was inaugurated) to sending out spies for the Union during the war. We also learn about how Pinkerton got started as a detective – he was originally a barrel maker – as well as some of his more famous exploits after the war catching train robbers and murderers. The writing is simple and Samantha sets a good pace. My 12-year-old son really loved the book as we listened in the car, and he’s much more interested in fiction than non-fiction, so kudos for writing that captures the imagination and interest of a pre-teen boy.

My quibbles stem more from my perceptions. While knowing that this is a book written to a younger audience I would have liked to have known more about the people in Pinkerton’s life. Samantha mentions that Pinkerton was the first (and only) man to hire women as detectives, finding them a valuable asset in his ability to fight crime, but we are not shown any of the exploits of these women in great detail. We also learn very little about Pinkerton’s family life or relationship with his wife. Finally, the title of the book suggests more focus on the Civil War period, however Pinkerton’s work as Lincoln’s Spymaster is covered in just a few chapters. All of these bring my rating down a bit, but I am balancing my own expectations with my understanding that I am not the target audience for the book.

Certainly, if you have children who are interested in history, or even if they aren’t and you want to get them interested, Lincoln’s Spymaster is a great hook to do that. My son is a voracious reader, but mostly of fiction, so knowing that this book peaked his interest shows that Samantha’s book does hit its mark with the target audience. And even though I wanted more, I learned a lot that I didn’t know about America’s First Private Eye.

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