Rating: 3/5
I spotted this book while browsing at the library and I couldn't pass it up. The title is just too intriguing. It's really about how criminals use architectural spaces for purposes other than their original intentions. In other words, they don't obey the common rules of how buildings work.
The first few pages drew me in really quickly. The way it was written reminded me of The Devil in the White City, which was fantastic. It veers into a first person narrative filled with anecdotes about the research done for the book and examples of real life crimes. This approach to the subject isn't bad. It just didn't grab me the same way the beginning did. There is a section that gets into legalese about burglary that felt like it went on too long.
I loved the stories peppered throughout the book, whether they were the author's or a burglar's. These spanned a number of topics such as how a city's structure affects crime, the way a building's placement in the city and layout can draw or deter criminals, and tools that are used in burglary. There is a balance between looking at how burglars act and what the police and others do to try to deter burglars.
The author is clearly interested in the subject and put in a lot of time and effort to write this book. However, it was repetitive at times and seemed to be longer than it needed to be. Definitely worth checking out for the ideas presented and the true crime elements.
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