The Legendary Detective

The Legendary Detective makes a noteworthy contribution to the study of detective fiction. --Journal of American Culture Walton undertakes careful forensic history to piece together the characters and the cases. In doing so, he allows us to see why novelists didn't want to let the facts stand in the way of a good story. . . . From a historical point of view, The Legendary Detective has much to recommend it, not least Walton's revealing of the agencies' murky practices. --Times Higher Education Over nearly a century, a symbiotic relationship developed between detective practices and the popular culture industry that depicted them. The Legendary Detective is a masterly analysis of private detective work within the context of popular culture, revealing their interweaving and mutual influence. Mass-market literature made detective work look glamorous, which in turn provided a model and an incentive for memoirists like Alan Pinkerton, Charlie Siringo, and William J. Burns. Detectives wrote field and case reports that they and the home office polished and no doubt embellished to impress clients whose expectations were influenced by popular culture; fact and fiction blurred. Walton's analysis is brilliant. --Robert Weiss, SUNY A fascinating account of the intersection of reality and fantasy, The Legendary Detective connects Dashiell Hammett's world of such fictional detectives as the Continental Op and Sam Spade to Samuel Hammett's (the same guy) experience of the real world of Pinkerton and Burns detectives working to break strikes and stir up political strife. It's a penetrating story of the development of a contemporary legend via the interplay of the detective business and the culture industries which has lastingly influenced our understanding of urban life. --Howard Becker, author of Tricks of the Trade