Kids-eye perspective on the Pinkerton detective agency and the very eventful time around Lincoln's election. As with Flavia de Luce, I appreciate an unsentimental and plucky main character; Nell Warne certainly fits the bill -- with her interest in code breaking and her quick-thinking responses to imminent danger.

Hannigan has a deft hand with adding the personal connection to Nell's best friend Jemma, who has fled with her family to Canada, rather than risk slave-catchers who do not care if a black person was born free if they can get away with abducting them south. Complex, fast-paced story with a winning main character and a really fantastic further reading section in the back.

Advance reader's copy provided by Edelweiss. ( )

What I love:
A great mix of wisdom, history, puzzles and fun with a heroine to make you laugh. An example of the wisdom “And suddenly I understood what it means to have faith in someone. Faith wasn’t about evidence and eyewitness…Faith was something you you knew inside – from your heart all the way to the tips of your toes.” (p.199) The history: the run up to the civil war, the reality of slavery and the resolve to do something about it. Was the issue too large for a girl? Yes. So is climate change, for that matter, but our individual efforts are not hopeless or pointless. The puzzles – I used the cheat sheet in the back. (Did you, Sophia?) and the fun: this girl wants lots and lots of petticoats, enough to hide a whole flock of chickens! (but wears her daddy’s boots!)
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Cornelia Warne (twelve years old, give or take) is deposited on her Aunt Kitty's doorstep in a boarding house in Chicago in 1859, after her last immediate family member dies back home in Chemung County, NY. Cornelia - quickly dubbed Nell by her no-nonsense Aunt Kate - is eager to cling to her sole remaining relative, but Aunt Kitty immediately begins looking into orphanages. However, Nell makes herself useful during an outing in Chicago, and Aunt Kitty allows her to stay - temporarily. Nell takes to her new life quickly, helping her Aunt Kitty with her detective work for Mr. Pinkerton, but always feels as though her aunt is just about to get rid of her. Meanwhile, Nell writes and receives letters from her friend Jemma, who fled with her mother and baby siblings to Canada after slave catchers came to Chemung County. Jemma, and eventually her father, help Nell and Kate fill in the blanks of what really happened that night in the woods when Nell's father shot his brother Matthew - Aunt Kitty's husband.

In addition to several mysteries, there is plenty of historical detail about slavery and secession - Nell is an avid newspaper reader - and indeed, their final case ties in to current events (circa 1860): they transport president-elect Abraham Lincoln into Washington, D.C., evading assassination plots along the way.

Nell's voice is spirited and lively. She has a stubborn sense of faith in her father, an innocent integrity, and a child's love for her aunt. The audio version is excellent.

Back matter gives some additional historical context and references.

Quotes

And suddently I understood what it meant to have faith in someone. Faith wasn't about evidence and eyewitnesses, like with Aunt Kitty and Mr. Pinkerton's other detectives. Faith was something you knew inside - from your heart all the way to the tips of your toes. (299)

Aunt Kate once said that family is the folks we choose to be with, not the ones we're stuck with. But I had my own notions about family now. To me, family meant taking the folks we're stuck with and choosing to love them anyway. (339) ( )

Kate Warne was America's first ever female detective! One day, her niece Nell arrives on her doorstep. Together they work out clues and solve mysteries right before the Civil War.

Set in the years before the Civil War, Nell Warne, an orphaned 11 year old, goes to live with her aunt who is a detective. Nell vows to help her aunt solve a mystery. This is a empowering story set in a historical time.