THE ART OF CRIME By Arthur R. L. Gardner
For those who wish to acquaint themselves with the methods practised by blackmailers, confidence tricksters, forgers, and the members of those other professions which, in Utopia, will be the only ones not entitled to describe themselves as " sheltered," The Art of Crime, by Mr. Arthur R. L. Gardner (Philip Allan, 10s. 6d.), will prove a fairly adequate primer on general lines. "Fairly" must qualify our recommendation because much of the information in this book is taken from similar, "though usually nearer first-hand, compilations on criminology, and most of the rest of it is accessible to the curious in the files of the News of the World. Moreover, the author's manner—a blend of the playful and the urbane—is not very happily suited to the record of broken and twisted lives. There are one or two curious mistakes. 0 Solo Mio is not the title of a well-known air. " Three men in a boat " does not constitute an adage. And no sow (however " Biblical ") was ever the protagonist of a proverb about " returning to his vomit."
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