Vidocq Society

The Vidocq Society is a Philadelphia-based group of mostly retired police investigators, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, and forensic specialists who meet periodically to decide whether to pursue cold cases. Its brief but consequential appearance in the novel establishes a model for organized, expert attention to unsolved crimes while also showing the limits of that model: the Society declines to investigate Ursula Brinker’s murder, and Hedda Brinker responds by seeking another way to keep the case alive.

Organization and Method

The Society’s members gather occasionally to assess cold cases and decide whether to follow up on them. As Brandon Walker understands it, the group is made up primarily of retired law-enforcement and forensic professionals. Its significance lies in bringing specialized experience to cases that have resisted ordinary investigation, although the novel does not describe the Society’s internal procedures beyond this collective decision to take on, or pass over, a case.

The Brinker Case

After Toby Brinker’s death, Hedda Brinker repeatedly discussed the Society with Ralph Ames. Toby had believed that whoever murdered Ursula was well connected, and that some form of cover-up explained why the killer had never been caught. Several private investigators hired by Toby found neither a viable suspect nor evidence of a cover-up, leaving the murder unresolved and, according to Hedda, a lasting source of anguish for him.

Hedda learned about the Society through a television program and tried to persuade it to take Ursula’s case. The group declined. Its decision is presented without a stated explanation; it should not be taken as confirmation of Toby’s cover-up theory, for which the private investigators had found no evidence.

Influence on The Last Chance

The refusal did not end Hedda’s effort to pursue the case. She asked Ralph Ames whether she had enough money to establish a similar organization on the West Coast, with a reach extending from the Mississippi River westward. Ames initially doubted that she had the resources for so large an undertaking. After Hedda won the jackpot, she created a nonprofit so that the proceeds could be paid into it, and the resulting organization was called The Last Chance.

The Last Chance is distinct from the Vidocq Society, though Hedda’s effort arose from her interest in the Society’s approach. Membership in The Last Chance is by invitation, and it seeks mostly retired police investigators and forensic experts thought likely to share its goals. Its stated purpose is to enlist people motivated by helping resolve cases that seem impossible to solve. In this way, the Society’s role is catalytic: its refusal leaves Hedda without the help she sought for Ursula’s case, but its example informs the alternative she builds.