The Detective's Assistant
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Based on the extraordinary true story of America's first-ever female detective, this fast-paced adventure recounts feats of daring and danger...including saving the life of Abraham Lincoln!
Eleven-year-old Nell Warne arrives on her aunt's doorstep lugging a heavy sack of sorrows. If her Aunt Kate rejects her, it's the miserable Home for the Friendless.
Luckily, canny Nell makes herself indispensable to Aunt Kate...and not just by helping out with household chores. For Kate Warne is the first-ever female detective employed by the legendary Pinkerton Detective Agency. And Nell has a knack for the kind of close listening and bold action that made Pinkerton detectives famous in Civil War-era America. With huge, nation-changing events simmering in the background, Nell uses skills new and old to uncover truths about her past and solve mysteries in the present.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the summer of 1859, a recently orphaned girl named Nell is left with her Aunt Kitty in Chicago, her sole living relative. Less than keen on caring for a "gangly urchin," Kitty immediately begins looking for other living arrangements for 11-year-old Nell (she also blames Nell's father for her own husband's death). But Aunt Kitty relents after Nell foils a pickpocket, and Nell begins to help out at the boardinghouse where Aunt Kitty lives, as well as with Aunt Kitty's work. And what a job it is: Kitty is a detective for Pinkerton's National Detective Agency (the character is based on Kate Warne, the first female detective in the U.S.). As Kitty and Nell root out thieves and murderers, Nell exchanges letters with her best friend Jessa, whose family used the Underground Railroad to escape slave hunters. Hannigan (Cupcake Cousins) makes skillful use of period details, bringing the novel's threads together in a nail-biting conclusion. Nell is a fearless, no-nonsense heroine, and her dry-witted narration drives this rollicking historical escapade. Ages 8 12.
