True Detectives - Hardcover

One private detective quoted here describes his work as "boring, boring, boring," but this entertaining volume gives the lie to that observation. Parkhurst ( How to Get Publicity ) concentrates on four agencies, three of them in the New York metropolitan area and the other, bounty hunters, in Virginia, and details their absorbing cases. One investigation involves the wife of a business executive who is having an affair with her husband's partner, another the search for a mother who gave her child up for adoption, yet another, theft from an art museum in Philadelphia. The PI's work is shown to be heavily dependent on the acquisition of information, whether from bugs or the assumption of false identities on the telephone, and the depiction of the ingenuity and dedication of these operatives makes for a gripping book. 50,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Billed as an account of "the real world of today's private investigators," this book follows four practitioners as they investigate a few cases, including a matrimonial dispute, a bail jumper, an international con man, and the identity of an adoptee's mother. Along the way, the reader learns something about the work of private eyes as they gather information while skirting laws on privacy. Parkhurst's intent, however, is to entertain. The drudgery and the failures of his subjects' endeavors are barely mentioned. This is primarily a flattering, anecdotal look at individuals whom the author clearly admires. Taken in context, it is interesting, but not a necessary purchase.
- Gregor A. Preston, Univ. of California Lib., Davis
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.