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… (more)

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.… (more)

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.… (more)

James Morton and Susanna Lobez have written a number of Australian true crime books together now, many of which are in anecdotal format. Whilst BENT tends towards that style again, it is considerably more detailed and employs a much clearer narrative connection than many of the earlier books this reviewer has read. As a result of this, it's a much stronger, considerably more informative read than originally expected.

Even when you realise that there's been an extensive culture of corruption throughout not just the Police in Australia since First Fleet Days, BENT really brings home how extensive, how protected and how blatant much of the corruption has been. Not just in the obvious locations such as Queensland in the Bjelke-Petersen era, and the NSW car crash of around the same time. The levels of corruption, and the length of time it was allowed to go on may have varied slightly state to state, but it is rather sobering to think that it's basically been everywhere. Whether it's disaffection, greed or temptation too great to resist, the thin line between the cops and crooks attempting to influence seems to be paper thin. Not helped by the witch hunts launched against so called whistleblowers (who let's face it are the ones who are attempting to do the right thing - yet we stigmatise / label...). What comes through so clearly is the need for leadership, supervision, guidance and intervention. Much of which is often missing, much of which seems to have been corrupted first.

BENT was fascinating and quite compelling reading. It's not a heavy academic treatise on the cause and affect, and likely ways of avoiding all corruption, but it does clarify a lot of intricacies and it certainly gives the reader a picture of the spread of the problem. And this time, because it's less choppy, and more structured and targeted it's extremely readable.

BENT leaves you considering the possible outcomes had the amount of effort, and the level of organisation that has been put into the crime side of the "policing" environments, had gone to actual crime solving.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-bent-james-morton-susanna-lobez… (more)