A Burglar's Guide to the City

296 pages

English language

Published April 11, 2016

ISBN:: 978-0-374-11726-9
Goodreads:: 22237142

(1 review)

Encompassing nearly 2,000 years of heists and tunnel jobs, break-ins and escapes, A Burglar's Guide to the City offers an unexpected blueprint to the criminal possibilities in the world all around us. You'll never see the city the same way again.

At the core of A Burglar's Guide to the City is an unexpected and thrilling insight: how any building transforms when seen through the eyes of someone hoping to break into it. Studying architecture the way a burglar would, Geoff Manaugh takes readers through walls, down elevator shafts, into panic rooms, up to the buried vaults of banks, and out across the rooftops of an unsuspecting city.

1 edition

Thom reviewed A Burglar's Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh

Review of "A Burglar's Guide to the City" on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

The point repeated often through this book is that burglars do not use the architectural features of most buildings at they were intended. Additional locks on the door are not much use if they can go through the wall, the ceiling or the floor. Chapters are spent discussing tunnels, roof jobs, and holing up within a Toys R Us. The book begins and ends with George Leonidas Leslie, an architect turned burglar.

Extraneously, the author rode along in LAPD helicopters, looking at street layouts but mostly gathering anecdotes. Also contained here are non-thorough discussions of what breaking and entering is, and how laws vary state by state. A large chapter is taken up with a discussion of amateur lock picking and the author's attempts to learn the skill - which has little to do with the title.

Several actual crimes are mentioned, but none in thorough detail. This book is …

The point repeated often through this book is that burglars do not use the architectural features of most buildings at they were intended. Additional locks on the door are not much use if they can go through the wall, the ceiling or the floor. Chapters are spent discussing tunnels, roof jobs, and holing up within a Toys R Us. The book begins and ends with George Leonidas Leslie, an architect turned burglar.

Extraneously, the author rode along in LAPD helicopters, looking at street layouts but mostly gathering anecdotes. Also contained here are non-thorough discussions of what breaking and entering is, and how laws vary state by state. A large chapter is taken up with a discussion of amateur lock picking and the author's attempts to learn the skill - which has little to do with the title.

Several actual crimes are mentioned, but none in thorough detail. This book is better for it's bibliography.