The Modern Detective

July 1, 2020

Private investigator Maroney explains the role that detectives play in modern society--they aren't the gumshoes of novels but rather professional investigators with backgrounds in law enforcement, law, research, union organizing, librarianship, and investigative journalism. They sift through mounds of publicly available information, from financial filings to trial transcripts, and cultivate relationships with people affiliated with potential lawbreakers. Maroney covers the ethics and techniques of his profession while unraveling an absorbing mystery in each chapter--from debunking sweatshop allegations in a BBC documentary (the filmmaker faked some of the footage) to conducting pre-impeachment investigatory work that helped bring down Connecticut governor John G. Rowland to finding the assets hidden by an expatriate real estate developer hiding from creditors while living in France. VERDICT Maroney has crafted an entertaining read that will appeal to fans of mystery and detective stories updated for a modern world. Those interested in pursuing a career in research and investigation will also appreciate this volume.--Karen Sandlin Silverman, Mt. Ararat Middle Sch., Topsham, ME

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 13, 2020
Maroney, cofounder of a PI firm, does an adequate job of illustrating in his debut the areas where modern private investigators provide value. He maintains that a private investigator’s “crucial, if often discreet” role eases the flow of global capital, resolves disputes among citizens and corporations, and ensures “that our legal systems, government agencies, and financial institutions remain fair and transparent.” He provides a number of examples from his own work, including getting a bribed witness to provide truthful testimony that exonerated a wrongfully convicted man, probing the legitimacy of bankruptcy claims, and looking into suspected theft of intellectual property. Maroney notes that he’s changed some details about the cases he recounts, without explaining his methodology for doing so, and leaves unanswered questions, such as why he rarely records witness interviews. While he accuses other writers of cherry-picking instances of bad actors to smear his profession, Maroney demonstrates only in part that he and his colleagues are a force for good. Readers interested in the scope and power of the modern PI may be skeptical of this volume’s upbeat spin from someone whose livelihood is linked to a positive view of his profession.

July 15, 2020
A revealing look at the world of the private detective, which isn't quite as Raymond Chandler imagined it. "We are everywhere," Maroney writes of detectives employed by private concerns rather than governments. Having begun his career, like so many PIs, in journalism (academia is another field ripe for recruitment), he reels off employers: large companies, movie studios, wealthy individuals, media outlets, even some government agencies, all of which need some critical piece of information. This can be of a rather sleazy nature--e.g., a juicy detail that will undo a spouse's divorce proceedings or, in the case of the disgraced entertainment executive Harvey Weinstein, "compromising information on women Weinstein had allegedly victimized (such as Rose McGowan) and journalists whose articles Weinstein sought to quash (such as Jodi Kantor)." The classic PI modus operandi involves disguising one's identity and deceiving--or, in polite parlance, socially engineering--one's way into the confidence of the person who holds the desired information. Sometimes this is criminal, sometimes not, but in any event, Maroney pointedly observes, the behavior is ubiquitous and lucrative. It is especially lucrative for the hackers in the PI world, who steal into offices in the middle of the night and copy sensitive computer data without attracting attention or suspicion--a pro tip, Maroney offers, is to remove a hard drive from a computer before copying it off, since USB connections and computer logs tell tales. Having cracked a company's system, the PI is then often hired to build an electronic fortress around it, double-dipping at its best. There's more poor Joe Schmo than James Bond in the whole enterprise, writes the author, and the ethics are iffy ("sometimes our work benefits the social good; sometimes we are the instruments of moral outrage"). Whatever the case, being a corporate/private detective is a growth industry, and it's not going anywhere anytime soon, which says something about the world in which we live. Maroney deglamorizes the world of private investigators while limning their sometimes essential, sometimes damaging work.

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