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

　　Eugene Fran?ois Vidocq was born in France in 1775 and his lifespanned the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars and the 1848revolutions. He was the Inspector Morse, the Sherlock Holmes, theJames Bond of his day. A notorious criminal, he turned policeofficer and employed a gang of ex-convicts as his detectives. Heinvented innovative criminal indexing techniques and experimentedwith fingerprinting, until his cavalier attitude towards the thinblue line forced him out of the police. So he began the world'svery first private detective agency.　　The cases he solved were high profile and he grew in notoriety.However, his infamy didn't prevent him from becoming a spy andmoving secretly across the dangerous borders of Europe. This is agloriously enjoyable historical romp through the eighteenth centuryin the company of the man whose influence still holds to thisday.