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Rating: 
Summary: Some fascinating pictures, but...
Review: ...the quality of the writing is very poor. As an example, on opening the book to a random page (153), I find the following, in the description of a keychain car alarm remote that conceals a small blade: "Such convenience items have become so popular and common that they usually escape close inspection, making the weapons they disguise more difficult to detect. If used properly, of course, such items could prove fatal." Now, in the first place, the ubiquity of keychain car remotes does not make it more difficult to detect a weapon concealed within one; it only makes it less likely that an officer might try to do so. In the second, it is at best sloppy and at worst downright wrong to characterize the use of a disguised weapon to cause fatal injury as "proper." What the author really means, of course is, "if used expertly" or "if used effectively," but that's not what he says. Such carelessness is typical. The sentiment that an officer would do well to look twice at every item in a suspect's possession is repeated, literally, on every other page, and one very quickly gets the sense that the words are just there to pad the pages. It would have been a better book if it were shorter, with less finger-wagging, more pictures, fewer pages, and a lower price. Then again, it's possible that Mr. Meissner has included so much brotherly from-one-officer-to-another advice as a salve for his conscience, or at the very least to ward off critics (like me) who would point out that his book is a resource for those who would conceal and carry disguised weapons as much as for those who would discover and confiscate them. Published and marketed by Paladin Press (of "Hitman" fame), the book is just as likely, or even more likely, to end up in the hands of terrorists and criminals as in those of police and security personnel. I have nothing against Paladin--indeed, I'd even go so far as to call them a national treasure--but the hypocrisy of Meissner's words weighed against the subject and substance of the book almost completely undermines his credibility as a writer, even in those rare instances when he has something meaningful to say.
Rating: 
Summary: An Eye Opener
Review: After reading this book, I found it to be very useful in detecting how criminals can deceive members of the law enforcement community. The book will open one's eyes and make police officers re-examine every piece of property that a criminal will have on him at the time of arrest. A very well written book that gives the reader very useful information.
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