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Loading... The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief (original 1997; edition 2011)by Ben Macintyre
Work InformationThe Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, the Real Moriarty by Ben Macintyre (1997)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Tedious and not very interesting. Read about 30% ( ) This was a DNF for me. I like this type of history but prefer that we follow history chronologically. This one starts with on of the biggest thefts of all time and then goes back to early childhood, then bounces around at various stages before we get back to the original theft. Once I start having trouble tracking where I am in time in the story (from pickpocket to safe cracker, to mastermind) I tend to get frustrated and give up.Some of the history of the Pinkerton's was also interesting but it also went from the father, to the son, to the uncle and back. I needed a roadmap, or a chronology. no reviews | add a review
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The Victorian era's most infamous thief, Adam Worth was the original Napoleon of crime. Worth learned early that the best way to succeed was to steal. And steal he did. Following a strict code of honor, Worth won the respect of Victorian society. He also aroused its fear by becoming a chilling phantom, mingling undetected with the upper classes, whose valuables he brazenly stole. His most celebrated heist: Gainsborough's grand portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire--ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales--a painting Worth adored and often slept with for twenty years.With a brilliant gang that included "Piano" Charley, a jewel thief, train robber, and playboy, and "the Scratch" Becker, master forger, Worth secretly ran operations from New York to London, Paris, and South Africa--until betrayal and a Pinkerton man finally brought him down. In a decadent age, Worth was an icon. His biography is a grand tour into the gaslit underworld of the last century. . . and into the doomed genius of a criminal mastermind. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)364.162092Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Criminology Crimes and Offenses Crimes of property Theft History, geographic treatment, biography BiographyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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