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Master Detective

The Life and Crimes of Ellis Parker, America's Real-Life Sherlock Holmes

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0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks

"Fascinating reading for true-crime buffs and mystery fans alike." —Max Allan Collins

Known as the greatest detective in the world, Ellis Parker was the "American Sherlock Holmes" who solved ninety-eight percent of the murders he pursued. Yet his illustrious forty-year career ended tragically in prison, where he died on the very eve of certain Presidential pardon.

Here is a riveting account of the ultimate sleuth, a man who solved his first crime as a teen by nabbing the thief who stole his father's horse and buggy. Drawing on the emerging discipline of psychology and his uncanny deductive skills, Parker was a "profiler" long before the term existed, and often apprehended criminals without ever leaving his desk!

Then came the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's baby son in 1932. From that moment things began to go wrong—terribly wrong—as Parker pushed himself past the bounds of law in pursuit of the truth. A fascinating look at America in the early years of a tumultuous century, Master Detective paints a long-overdue portrait of an exceptionally talented and driven man who, in the end, stopped at nothing in his quest for justice.

"A riveting read. In Reisinger, America's real-life Sherlock Holmes has found his Watson."—John Lutz

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    • Booklist

      June 1, 2006
      The panic and chaos surrounding the Lindbergh kidnapping case, as well as tactics of crime fighting from the early twentieth century through the Depression, come wonderfully alive in this thoroughly researched, well-crafted biography. Ellis Parker, the first chief detective of Burlington County, New Jersey, was dubbed "the American Sherlock -Holmes" by newspapers for his uncanny ability to reconstruct crimes through psychology and deduction. Reisinger follows Parker's career, from solving horse thefts, barn fires, and murders, through catching bootleggers and bank robbers, on to the detective's professional Waterloo, the Lindbergh case. This is as much a study of criminology as it is a biography, with Reisinger detailing the old-time police work that relied heavily on informants and intimidation and how criminals adapted to changing times, especially during the Depression. The core of the book is the Lindbergh case, Parker's theories on the real suspect, and his tragic overreaching to prove his point. Gripping.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)

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  • English

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