Henry Slater, Britain's Greatest Private Detective

Once a household name, how and why did this private detective disappear?

In the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods, one name was synonymous with private detection in Britain: Henry Slater. This man and his City of London detective agency were famous: written about in the press, and recommended to those seeking divorces or other help. Yet in 1904, Slater, along with several of his staff, were put on trial at the Old Bailey in a case so notorious that even Winston Churchill had to go and watch proceedings. As a result of the trial, Slater seemed to disappear from view, his agency ruined.

My new book, Britain’s Greatest Private Detective: The Rise and Fall of Henry Slater, looks at this fascinating man and his many identities. I’ve spent the last couple of years researching not only the world of the private detective, but Slater and his agency in particular. So although my book focuses on a single case that Slater’s agency took on - the one that ruined him - it also uses it to tell Slater’s story, and to put him within the context of the Golden Age of private detectives.

If you want to learn more about how detective agencies were run, the importance of publicity, and the competition between detectives, then give my book a read! It’s a book about a dog-eat-dog world, about fake identities, corruption, and jealousy.

Britain’s Greatest Private Detective is published by Pen & Sword Books, and is out now. It is my second book about the history of private detection, following my earlier book on female private detectives, Sister Sleuths.