James Morton (1) (1938–)

An interesting book. Morton's book on Vidocq is part biography and part critique of the memoirs written by Vidocq himself and other who encountered him during his life. Morton does a good job detailing Vidocq life and delivers his story with some mild humor. Now, whether if this is due to Morton own cleverness or just the eccentricities of Vidocq's life is debatable. Where Morton starts falling short is many of the details gives to give context to events some time run long and take away from Vidocq. I would most likely recommend this book as a supplementary to a reader after reading Vidocq's memories… (mehr)

A fresh, new look at gangs in every part of the world which deliberately avoids the stories that have been done to death - about Capone, Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde - and focuses on less well-known gangs such as 'Ma' Barker's Boys; the Smaldones of Denver; Scotland Yard's 1960s' Flying Squad, the so-called Firm within a Firm; Dr Death, the Melbourne drug dealer and Andre Stander, the former South African police officer who led a gang of bank robbers before being shot dead in Fort Lauderdale having fled a 17-year sentence.… (mehr)

An adequate summary of the life of this larger-than-life criminal-turned-detective, who had a profound impact on both policing and culture. Morton focuses on telling salacious stories from Vidocq's life, rather than analyzing him (a little of that comes in a brief final chapter). This is padded out a little bit by stories of contemporaries with tangential connections to Morton's subject (though these digressions are often somewhat interesting in their own right). The author deserves credit for sorting through the tangle of myths and stories about Vidocq, some of them propagated by the man himself and others by his enemies, but it could have done better to put Vidocq in context rather than merely telling (admittedly fascinating) stories. Despite these caveats, it still serves as a good introduction to the man.… (mehr)

FINALLY finished this book. I have literally been reading this for over a month. For me, that is a LONG time.

Vidocq is certainly an interesting man (which is why I read a book about him), and James Morton does cover all the details. However, he kind of gives too much backstory about every other person ever to encounter Vidocq. You have to be extremely in the know about French history to follow all of the backstories and histories and rumors and drama that goes on throughout Vidocq's long life. Not only was I not super interested in half of those people, I also just couldn't keep track of them and would rather have found out more about VIDOCQ. I feel like I just got a long summary of all the stuff that happened in France during Vidocq's lifetime, with snippets of what he was up to here and there.

Still a Vidocq fan, but not a super fan of this book. It's probably better suited to indepth French scholars.… (mehr)