'Paddington' Pollaky, Private Detective

A biography of the real-life detective who may have inspired Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha ChristieWho was the Victorian super-sleuth "Paddington" Pollaky? In fiction, he was mentioned in a Gilbert & Sullivan opera and in the bestselling biography The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher. In reality, he was a contradiction: a man of mystery who tried to keep out of the limelight, while at times he craved recognition and publicity. He was a busybody, a meddler, yet someone whose heart was ultimately in the right place. Newspaper accounts detail his work as a private detective in London, his association with The Society for the Protection of Young Females, his foiling of those involved in sex-trafficking, and his tracking down of abducted children—themes that remain relevant in the 21st century. What was his involvement in the American Civil War? Why did he place cryptic messages in the agony column of the Times? And why were the newspapers so interested in this Hungarian detective and adventurer while the police thoroughly disapproved of him? In this first biography of this complex character, author Bryan Kesselman answers these questions, and examines whether it was Pollaky who provided the inspiration for the literary greats Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes.