Geoff Manaugh

I'm a little staggered this was published in 2016 -- its gentle, credulous defense of surveillance seems pre-Snowden. Its discussion of police and security forces is also bizarre. I'm not asking for a book on crime and architecture to go full 1312 over here, but its obsequious, deferential treatment of law enforcement (members of which are 80% of Manaugh's primary sources for this slight and meandering book) gets boring. Parts of it seem as transparently paranoia-baiting as evening news segments ("is YOUR HOUSE a likely target for burglary?"), and then it has the nerve to end with a condemnation of burglary (Manaugh seems convinced that his book has romanticized burglars, somehow.) There's interesting stuff here, but the book is essentially several vaguely related journalistic profiles stitched together by quotes taken from other, more interesting books.

Also, this is a petty thing, but Manaugh has an odd prose tic where he loves to begin sentences with some imperative to consider or recall or remember or think of. "Think of the burglar who..." "Consider a panic room which..." "Consider the Roofman..." It wears thin, especially given that this is such a quick read.… (més)