Girl in Disguise: A Novel by Greer Macallister

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                 I stayed up far too late reading this book.  Found on the Bas Bleu website, at one point I reached a lull in the story where all I wanted was for something to finally happen.  Then all of a sudden, the story changed and all I wanted was to see what was going to happen next.

                Kate Warne is a widow looking to become the very first female agent of the Pinkerton Agency.  Answering a newspaper ad, Kate is not at all what Allan Pinkerton was expecting to walk through his door.  His instinct is to turn Kate away, but Kate won’t have that.  Instead, she convinces Pinkerton to give her a chance.  She takes on a case to prove she can get results.  That she does, and Pinkerton is impressed, despite another agent, Tim Bellamy, trying to claim the success.

                After Bellamy’s attempt to claim the success of her case, it is not a surprise that the two do not exactly get along once Kate is an agent.  His is not the only animosity she must deal with, though.  With the exception of one man, Graham DeForest, and Pinkerton himself, the other agents do not like having Kate work with them.  They also don’t like how close she is becoming to Pinkerton as he trains her.  There is nothing romantic going on, but that does not mean those around them don’t believe otherwise.  Kate, however, does not let all these naysayers affect her.  She puts their words behind her, and goes on with her job.

                Kate does her job so well that Pinkerton promotes her.  She becomes the head of her own department, one of all female agents.  Her first responsibility is to bring in and train women to work in the agency.  This is a task far easier said than done as Kate struggles to find women able and willing to work undercover.  When she does finally find two women to work with, they both have a hard time doing what they are assigned to do.  Eventually everything works out, but it takes some time, as well as some self-doubt on Kate’s part.             

                Then the Civil War starts and Kate finds herself undercover again.  Her assignment is to snuff out the spies in their midst.  It is a job Kate is happy to do as she has previously met and worked with Abraham Lincoln.  She believes in what Lincoln stands for, and will do whatever it takes to help him achieve his goals.  This includes pretending to be Bellamy’s wife. 

                Despite having worked in the same agency for years, Kate and Bellamy have never learned how to get along.  Working together so closely, posing as husband and wife, changes all this.  Their time together makes both Kate and Bellamy see each other in a different light.  It is a light Kate is thrilled to experience, but worries that it can never last.  With such uncertain times, she may be right.

                As good as this book is, it is also really sad.  No matter what Kate does, happiness never quite works for her.  Sometimes her happiness ends in devastating ways. 

Then there are the things Kate must to do while undercover.  Despite knowing the importance of the act she must put on, some of the things Kate has to do she really struggles with.  This happens especially when she must pretend to be a Southern sympathizer.  Not just one Southern sympathizer, but many different ones throughout the South.  The things Kate has to say to keep her cover make her feel awful and sick, and she is more than happy to return home when called.

                A fictional account of a real-life person, it was great to read about a woman who broke through and became something no one thought a woman could ever become.  Without Kate Warne, who knows how much longer it would have taken women to break through in not only the Pinkerton Agency, but other agencies as well.  I have to wonder, if Ms. Warne’s success as an undercover detective also helped women get onto the police force.  It’s too bad that so many records about Ms. Warne no longer exist.  I would love to learn a lot more about her.