I received a free digital copy of this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Pinks is a non-fiction book about the women who worked with the Pinkerton Detective Agency - the first agency to employ women as detectives.

This book is very interesting, and also a short, quick read. I found the different cases the women worked on pretty amazing (aka travelling with president-elect Abraham Lincoln to ensure his safety) and I really loved that this actually happened, and in the 1800s rather than the 1900s.


I thought at times the book came off a bit ‘hero worship’ with Allan Pinkerton, who employed the women. A few times there was mentions of how great he was for daring to employ women, and I was “okay, I get it.” Some of the stories were a little bit over the top which does make me understand why some people thought that Pinkerton might have made them up. Some cases as well depended on the agents messing with a person’s mental capabilities and often driving them mad with fear or grief until they confessed, which did make me a little bit uncomfortable at times.

Overall though this was a fantastic read and a bit of history I had no idea about!