06-02-2016, 10:27 AM
I read a very good review of this, so I snagged it off the new books table in the library. The author has a degree in art history, which may explain why some sections of the book were too wordy for me. Supposedly it's about how burglars use architecture differently from everyone else (cutting walls, digging tunnels, scaling walls and roofs etc.), and he beats that to death in "explanatory" sections which slow the narrative. Repeatedly. Actually it's a series of short section on topics only loosely related to that.
He discusses George Leslie, who was a mastermind bank robber in the 19th century and this was by far the most interesting part of the book. I wish there had been more on him. (He is the subject of a book called King of Heists.) Later good parts were focused on other spectacular bank jobs, aerial policing in LA, extreme incursion methods, lock picking, and a visit to a panic room builder.
It felt a little padded (particularly with the florid bits), and read rather like several magazine articles patched together. It was my "read while the wife watches TV" book, so I'd skim the dragging parts and focus on the good stuff. Not great, but entertaining.
He mentions a book about crime by Harry Houdini, The Right Way to Do Wrong, that sounds much better than this one.
He discusses George Leslie, who was a mastermind bank robber in the 19th century and this was by far the most interesting part of the book. I wish there had been more on him. (He is the subject of a book called King of Heists.) Later good parts were focused on other spectacular bank jobs, aerial policing in LA, extreme incursion methods, lock picking, and a visit to a panic room builder.
It felt a little padded (particularly with the florid bits), and read rather like several magazine articles patched together. It was my "read while the wife watches TV" book, so I'd skim the dragging parts and focus on the good stuff. Not great, but entertaining.
He mentions a book about crime by Harry Houdini, The Right Way to Do Wrong, that sounds much better than this one.
the hands that guide me are invisible