The Bad Detective: The Incredible Cases of Nic Power [Paperback]

Having become one of Canadas first police detectives in 1882, Nicholas Power developed a reputation as the nations very own super sleuth, hailed in the newspapers as a homegrown 'Sherlock Holmes'.He was involved in all the most heinous and shocking cases of the day, swiftly, almost superhumanly, determining the culprit and their modus operandi from only the barest of evidence. But all was not what it seemed. There was growing concern, even in courts at the time, that Power was suborning investigations, framing innocent men and was in truth very far from the super sleuth he claimed to be.His repeated attempts to enhance his own image regularly trumped the pursuit of justice and the innocent paid the price - sometimes with their lives.Author and historian Bob Gordon traces Powers career from its earliest beginnings as a lowly constable through his meteoric rise to chief of police, via some of the most scandalous criminal investigations the world has ever seen. On his retirement, the Morning Herald noted his long record of criminal roundups, which the editors described as so numerous and so full of interest that it would take an entire volume to justly recount them. With this intriguing volume, Bob Gordon has done just that. And in doing so, hes shattered the myth of Canadas Sherlock Holmes. GB