Nick and Nora Charles the bantering, romantically involved detective duo has become a well-used trope in literature, stage, screen, and television ever since. The characters first appear in Dashiell Hammett's best-selling last novel "The Thin Man" (1934). Nick is an alcoholic former private detective who retired when he married Nora, a wealthy Nob Hill heiress. Hammett reportedly modeled Nora on his longtime partner Lillian Hellman, and the characters' boozy, flippant dialogue on their relationship. (The novel also mentions that Nick was once a Pinkerton detective, as was Hammett.) The novel is considered one of the seminal texts of the hard-boiled subgenre of mystery novels,
The Pinkerton Labor Spy The Pinkerton Labor Spy The Pinkerton Labor Spy (alternately, The Pinkerton's Labor Spy) is a nonfiction book published in 1907 as an exposé of intrigue and abuses by the Pinkerton Detective Agency in general, and by chief agent James McParland in particular. The book detailed the use of spies by mining and ore milling companies during the period of the Colorado Labor Wars. It described the recruiting, utilization, and management of agents who infiltrated the Western Federation of Miners and the United Mine Workers unions for the purposes of disruption, sabotage, and gathering information. The author of the book, Morris