French Connection

by Robin Moore and Robin Moore

Book Overview

The gripping account of an extraordinary international narcotics case, as it unfolds on the streets of New York City.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 055302079X
• ISBN13: 9780553020793
• Release Date: June 1978
• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

If you liked the movie...

Though I am not in law enforcement, I am cetain that this must be a very accurate portayal of the work of a police detective (or DEA or FBI agent, etc). I found it to be fascinating and a page turner. I could see how some might find it boring through the middle half of the book because it involes many episodes of sitting and watching suspects and tailing the same suspects endlessly on foot or in cars. I think young CSI fans considering a career in LE should read this and see if the greuling work needed to catch serious criminals sounds appealing. I'm not sure I would be motivated enough to stand in place outside in 0 degree weather for hours waiting for a suspect to make a move. Not to mention the 120 hr weeks, 36 hr days and apparently unpaid overtime. I've seen the movie several times, which is why I got this when I happened upon it. Similar story, with some differences and the typical book/movie contrast of much more detail and better coloring of the characters. And it seems that big car/train chase in the movie didn't happen. Really good book!

Elaborate + Dry + It reveals how hard it is to be police detectives

Eighty percent of the 260 pages of this book describe the daily surveillance police made on the drug importers. It includes watching what they were doing in their business locations, the restaurants and bars they visited, etc. Tailing their cars everyday is also part of the job. The book is full of details like how the detectives felt while sitting in their cars for hours, what they talked to each other, etc. It reveals how hard it is to be police detectives. It's so hard that it destroyed the love life of one of them. Their gratuitous devotion and sacrifice moves me. After finishing half of the book, it became dry and boring. I give it 5 stars for details, painstakingly and vividly depicting the hard work and hard life of the detectives. I give it 3 stars for entertaining value. So, on average, it deserves 4 stars. P.S. This book makes me wonder if North American governments are losing the Drug war. The amount of drug confiscated these days is at least hundred of times larger than the one in this book. However, drug is still flooding our streets. Why? Below are some of the reasons I've found. If any readers found different ones, please list them in your comment so that they can be beneficial to all of us. 1. Money, money. Making, and selling drug are ways to get rich quickly. As a result, more people are selling them than in the 70s when this book was first printed. You can see on the news these days, the drug trade is taking over border cities in Mexico. Thousands of people were killed each year! Moreover, it has spilled out on to U.S big cities. For example, in Phoenix, Arizona, more than one hundered of people were kidnapped a year. Most of them are drug related according to CNN. 2. Easier ways to make drugs. These days a lot of people are making meth or growing marijuana in their homes. It's more difficult to detect them. 3. Drugs are more potent. They say drugs are more potent now. For example, if a person tries Meth once, he'll get hooked. The potency also makes it's much harder to get rid of the addiction. 4. More addicts. There are more people doing drugs now than in the 70s when this book was first printed. That makes a huge demand. That explains why the drug trade is flourishing. Why is it so? The amazing thing is the majority of addicts are not rich. So, I can not say people have got it all and they try drugs because they're bored with their lives. Does that means Drug Education has failed? I don't know. I have no answer for this. One simple logic is if nobody is buying drug then nobody is selling it. Yes, I believe the best solution is reducing the number of users to minimum. Other solutions just complement this. We can never make it so that nobody is buying it. There are always a few people doing drugs to get new excitement. The question is how can we effectively reduce the numbers of user? 5. Problems with Drug-Fighting Agencies. A lot of books have proved bureaucracy, in-fighting, and lack of co-operation, as th

Fascinating

Well, I read this book at the age of 15, when it was first published in 1969. I loved it. Tho frankly I'd have to read it again to do any kind of real review. So I'm going to copy an outside blurp."As a result of his second tour in Vietnam Robin Moore became concerned about the wide spread use among soldiers of narcotics, particularly opium and its derivative, heroin. He contacted friends in the New York Police Department and discovered what he would later call 'The French Connection Case', a French syndicate smuggling heroin into New York. In 1969 his nonfiction account of the case, The French Connection, was published and in 1973 the movie won 5 Academy Awards."Hope that helps

great detective story

I haven't even finished half of this book and now I am ready to review it. What a fantastic detective story. I dont live in NYC and wouldn't want to either but I can almost sense what it would be like. The author gives great geographical descriptions and also intense character descriptions which is what makes this book/story to me a good read. I literally lost interest in other things and read this book cover to cover without stopping. Try to find a hardbound edition because this is a story you will want to read over and over.

How Narcotics Detectives broke up a Mafia Drug Ring

Robin Moore writes a stunning novel that illustrates the fundementals of good detective work. Egan and Grosso are two Narcotics Detectives who track a mafia drug dealer, but they don't know that the mob is also part of a bigger drug ring with french dealers, who smuggle drugs over from France under the innocant cover of a famous French T.V. star. The Final bust is brilliant. A rcommended read for anyone who likes a classic novel of good detective work.