The First Detective: The Life and Revolutionary Times of Vidocq: Criminal, Spy, and Private Eye - Softcover

Morton, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1468300571 ISBN 13: 9781468300574

Publisher: Abrams Press, 2012

Synopsis

He was the Inspector Morse, the Sherlock Holmes, the James Bond of his day. A notorious criminal in his youth, he became a police officer and employed a gang of ex-convicts as his detectives. He developed innovative criminal indexing techniques and experimented with fingerprinting, until his cavalier attitude towards the thin blue line forced him out of the police. So he began the world’s very first private detective agency. The cases he solved were high profile, and gradually he grew in notoriety. However, his reputation didn’t prevent him from becoming a spy and moving secretly across the dangerous borders of Europe. The First Detective is a gloriously enjoyable historical romp through the eighteenth century in the company of the man whose influence on law enforcement still holds to this day.

About this title

About the Author:

James Morton practiced law for twenty-five years before becoming editor of Law Journal and Criminal Lawyer. He is now a full-time freelance writer and the author of many books, including the bestselling Gangland series.

Review:

"The author tracks the shadowy figure whose exploits inspired novelists." — –Los Angeles Times

"An impressively exhaustive examination." — –Sacramento/San Francisco Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Abrams Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1468300571
• ISBN 13: 9781468300574
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288