Be Your Own Detective

Rating:
Summary: Tips and Tricks, Invisibilty and Common Sense
Review: A lot of what Fallis writes was extremely helpful for me, as I studied to be a private investigator. Many of the methods he describes are common-sense approaches, though insightful to someone who may not have used the techniques before, such as his advice in the chapter entitled "The Paper Trail."

However, there are also some outdated sections of the book, and the price ranges listed for some of the equipment he describes are totally outdated (I still have yet to see civilian NVD equipment that ranges higher than $300).

All in all, an excellent read, and extremely useful to the fledgling PI. Especially his advice on not using a bright red Ferrari to tail someone in.

Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: Great book for beginners in the private investigation field. Very fun and easy to read. Loaded with good advice and practical knowledge. I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in this area.

Rating:
Summary: A Solid Introduction to the Field
Review: This guidebook by a licensed PI (as you will learn in the book, in order to accept any compensation for investigative work, you must be licensed) and a criminal defense lawyer is a good basic introduction to the realm of private detectives. Well-organized and easy to read, the book is full of practical tips for the budding amateur and prospective professional. Each section (Tailing, Surveillance, Paper Trails, etc.) is introduced and illustrated by anecdotes from Fallis' own career. And while most of the book is pretty common sense and straightforward, it's nice to have it all spelled out in one place. Throughout, Fallis adopts a cautionary tone which dismisses how detective work are portrayed on TV and film and underlines the drudgery that most real life PIs deal with every day. Especially valuable are the chapter on civil work (which is the bread and butter of most investigative work), which outlines the most common areas and issues and the chapter on criminal work, which usually (but not always) involves working for a person accused of a crime.

If the book has a weakness, it's that some of it seems a bit dated. In the last two years, the incidence of identity theft has grown exponentially, and so one wonders whether some of the techniques he described for finding personal information out about people would work so well these days. Similarly, the world of computers and the Internet changes so quickly that his chapter on that is also probably not as useful as it might have been. However, the appendix on social security numbers (the first three digits indicate what state or area it was issued in) and information sources are especially handy references. All in all, a fine introduction to detecting.