Did you know that twenty years before Sherlock Holmes, a fictional New York private investigator was being celebrated for his ability to solve crimes based on observation and deductive reasoning? Originally published in 1864 and never before reprinted, Leaves from the Note-Book of a New York Detective features 29 cases from the first American detective hero to appear in fiction, James Brampton.The author, John Babbinton Williams (1827–79) was a medical doctor who contributed stories to magazines of the time.