The Cowboy Detective

A True Story of 22 Years with a World-Famous Detective Agency

By: Charles Siringo

Narrated by: Michael Martin Murphey

A fascinating, true-life memoir of an undercover agent in the wild, wild West of the late 1800s!

After years of cowboying, Charles A. Siringo settled down in Caldwell, Kansas to run a store—until an acquaintance told him that he was "cut out" for detective work. Thereupon, Siringo joined the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, where he worked for more than twenty years.

A Cowboy Detective chronicles Siringo's adventures as an undercover operative in the wilder parts of the West, where he rode with the lawless and escaped violent death more than a few times. Using more guises than Sherlock Holmes, he survived labor riots in Idaho, hounded moonshiners in the Appalachians, and infiltrated Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch as an outlaw on the run for murder!

©1998 Charles Siringo (P)1998 Phoenix Books

Inside stroy of the Kellogg Idaho Miners strike

What did you love best about The Cowboy Detective?

True story told in the words of the author who lived the events of the day.

What other book might you compare The Cowboy Detective to and why?

This is a good introduction to Siringo's other books extoling his life as a Pinkerton Detective.

What does Michael Martin Murphey bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Murphey's knowledge of the old west and the life of the cowboy comes through.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Cowboy detective on the inside of the Kellogge Idaho mine strike and murders.

Not alot of

Keep in mind that this book was written after the turn of the century. People who had made (or witnessed) some bit of history saw an opportunity to write a short memoir to supplement their income, or simply have their names remembered.

The story eventually focuses on Charles Siringo's part, as a Pinkerton detective, in the Coeur d'Alene miners confrontation of 1899. This is a fairly interesting re-telling and takes up the bulk of the audio book.

There are many names "dropped" throughout the tale, which mean nothing to the rest of the story. It takes awhile to realize that you don't necessarily need to focus on these for a "call-back" later.

The narration, which I would rate as "decent", is the most "cowboyish" part of this selection. You may need to turn up the volume a time or two to catch everything.

Great short story of a man's life.

If you could sum up The Cowboy Detective in three words, what would they be?

Meeting Life's hardships

What did you like best about this story?

The authors explanation of one mans adventure in the old west. How it seems like what is happening in todays events.

What does Michael Martin Murphey bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

A feeling of being with him on his job as an undercover detective.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Very suspensfull

Cowboy Defective

The reader drones on with the tales of a Pinkerton dective. Not real spell binding or excieting listen.