author
William J. Burns
1861–1932
Best known as "America's Sherlock Holmes," this famous detective moved from the U.S. Secret Service to headline-making private investigations and later led the Bureau of Investigation, the agency that became the FBI. He also turned his casework into books that helped popularize the modern detective story for a wide audience.
1 Audiobook
The Crevice
by William J. Burns, Isabel Ostrander
About the author
Born in Baltimore in 1861, William J. Burns built his reputation as a private investigator after earlier work as a railroad detective and with the U.S. Secret Service. He became nationally famous for investigations tied to some of the era's biggest stories, including the 1910 Los Angeles Times bombing, and his detective agency grew into a major national business.
Burns was often called "America's Sherlock Holmes," a nickname that captured both his celebrity and the public fascination with his methods. In 1921 he was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation, the federal agency that later became the FBI, though his tenure ended in 1924.
Alongside his investigative career, Burns wrote and inspired crime and detective books that brought real-case drama to popular readers. He died in Sarasota, Florida, in 1932, leaving behind a legacy that links early true-crime storytelling with the rise of modern American law enforcement.