Beau Riffenburgh has a Ph.D. in history from the University of Cambridge, where he was a member of the academic staff. He has written numerous books on exploration, including "Shackleton's Forgotten Expedition." He lives in Llanarthne, Wales, UK.
"Locating the real James McParland amid the invective, acclaim and
invention (including his own) is no easy task, and Beau
Riffenburgh, author of ''Shackleton's Forgotten Expedition, ' has
made good use of the recently released Pinkerton archives....
McParland was the prototype of a character that has become an
adored part of America's cultural landscape, the hard-boiled
gumshoe, the lone sleuth in search of justice."
--Ben McIntyre, "The New York Times"
"Revisiting archives and reintroducing historical context,
Riffenburgh unfolds a measured, thought-provoking tale of
mine-centered mayhem."
--"American History "
"Thanks to Riffenburgh, it is not hard to divine the truth.
McParland was neither a demon nor a saint. This is no copout. The
man belonged to an age ravaged by violence and conflict, and his
job as he understood it was to capture the guilty.... He was not
always in the right, but he broke with the right less often and
less deliberately than the criminals he hunted. That is as much
heroism as Riffenburgh, a great detective in his own right, has
managed to find in this alien, tumultuous time."
--"The Christina Science Monitor"
"Riffenburgh navigates... [a] moral quagmire deftly,
contextualizing McParland and his far more violent time, while
simultaneously deconstructing the image of the 'Great
Detective.'"
"--The Daily Beast"
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