Girl in Disguise

I watched some youtube videos of Jason Bateman getting his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame recently. Will Arnett gave a speech flirtatiously joking about how Michael Bluth is Ivanka Trump, but hotter. It's great that they're such good friends, and still so cute. Apparently Mitch Hurwitz and other AD castmembers also attended and posed for pictures afterward.

Meanwhile, I've been reading that Girl in Disguise book about Kate Warne. Since we know so little about this Pinkerton detective, the author has constructed an interesting backstory for her. She is indeed a widow, but she was forced into the marriage to cover up getting pregnant; also, as a kid she lived an unhappy, itinerant lifestyle because her father was an actor and con artist. This leads to Kate feeling conflicted about having to deceive people, manipulate them and betray them, such as with Mrs. Maroney from the Expressman Case. (Greer Macallister greatly simplifies the case so that they obtain the evidence they need quickly instead of doing the convoluted shit that actually happened and wasted everyone's time.)

At the Pinkerton agency, Kate has to deal with the suspicion and condescension of her male colleagues, constantly needing to prove herself and pass their various tests. Even worse, people keep gossiping that she's probably having an affair with Allan Pinkerton, even though nothing's going on. I even hoped that this novel would portray Allan's wife Joan as a sympathetic, likable character, unlike other fictionalizations. However, after Joan is introduced as a wonderful singer and mother, in private, she hisses to Kate to stay away from her husband! :( I was also sad that the novel waited many, many chapters to introduce the Women's Bureau of the agency. So far we have only seen Kate hire two women, and she doesn't get much time to actually supervise them before Kate's whisked off again to a special assignment. I'm right now in the middle of the Baltimore plot to assassinate Lincoln.

So far it's a pretty good story. The author's other book about a female magician is being made into a movie, so I hope that this one might get a movie treatment some day, with some tweaks maybe.