Haunted America

"We have a crime of terror upon us," Mayor Lincoln said, aiming a stern finger at Kurtz. "And the police department is falling apart--that's why it has to do with it. I shan't allow Nicholas Rey to remain involved in this matter in any capacity. One more mistake and he shall face his discharge. Some state senators came to me today, John. They're appointing another committee to propose abolishing all city police departments statewide and replacing them with a state-run metropolitan police force if we can't finish this. They're dead set. I shan't see that happen under my watch--understand that! I won't see my city's police department pulled apart."

The Dante Club, 167

-----------------------------------

The Dante-derived murders themselves have no counterpart in history, but police biographies and city records document a sharp rise in New England's murder rate immediately following the Civil War, as well as widespread corruption and underhanded partnerships between detectives and professional criminals. Nicholas Rey is a fictional character, but he faces the very real challenges of the first African-American policemen in the nineteenth century, many of whom were veterans of the Civil War and were of mixed racial backgrounds; an overview of their circumstances can be found in W. Marvin Dulaney's Black Police in America.

--from Matthew Pearl's Historical Note, included in the trade paperback edition of The Dante Club.