The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, The Real Moriarty

Review: In his engrossing new book The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, The Real Moriarty Ben Macintyre comes to grips with one of the great Victorian criminals. The tag of 'the real Moriarty' is something of an exaggeration, though Worth may have been one inspiration for the character (others may have been Charles S. Peirce, Simon Newcomb and Alfred Drayson).

He was certainly a man of great character who led an extraordinary life. The story of his theft of Gainsborough's portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire is far more interesting than the more recent loss of Goya's Duke of Wellington. The Victorian underworld and demi-monde are lightly but authoritatively established for us, and Adam Worth is placed firmly against his proper background.

Even without the possible Doylean connection, this book is well worth reading. Worth detested violence, and he seems to have been that rare thing, a major criminal who was not a villain. He did not have Sherlock Holmes as his nemesis, but he did have William Pinkerton.

Reviewed by: Roger Johnson, [District Messenger 171, 1997]