Smuggling Books

This book tells you many ways of concealing including hiding places in house, in vehicle, and on the person. However, tools and technics of carpentry and vehicle engineering are primarily required in some advance methods of hiding because this is not a how-to-construct text. I really hope that my roommate doesn't have this book.

This book owes almost all of its content to Michael Connor's books "How to Hide Anything," "Duty Free" and "Sneak it Through" and is very candid about it. That's why it only gets three stars.

However, that being said, there are three stars' worth of reasons to buy this book in particular: hiding things on your person, smuggling, unconventional hiding methods (mobile/mail/etc.), and concealed weapons.

If you are looking for a good "hide-it-in-your-home" book like I was, then Michael Connor's "How to Hide Anything" is your best bet, as it covers everything from furniture to drains to hotel hidies when you're on a trip and is just an excellent all-around thief protection hidie book.

However, if you are more interested in the more uhm... how to put it diplomatically?, SEMI-legal reasons for hiding stuff, then this book definitely has information to offer that Connor's best-known book does not.

Final note: As with all hiding books, almost all of the projects require you to have carpentry skills and a lot of patience. There are no step-by-step, hold-your-hand instructions on construction. It is up to you to make the ideas presented work for you.

With the Cold War over, British agent Charlie Muffin, a wild card whose expertise is field work, expects to be fired from the service as a cost cutting measure. To his shock, he is instead sent to Moscow to work for the Russians in a futile attempt to protect the nuclear stockpile from criminals, which has been a cash crop export for years for the Russian Mafia and some members of the government. Upon reaching Moscow, Charlie immediately feels he is living in the roaring twenties in Chicago. The Russian Mafia rule over everything, though there is some dangerous in-fighting among the mob. ...... Charlie's beloved Natalia, a former Communist spy, is also working to clean up corruption within the government. However, before Charlie can pursue any relationship with Natalia, a gang boss steals 250 kilos of weapons-grade plutonium, fifty times greater than the atomic bombs dropped over Japan in World War II. Charlie risks his life by going undercover as an arms dealer in an attempt to recover the stolen nuclear material before it leaves the country for Iraq. ..... BOMB GRADE is one of the best Post Cold War espionage novels released in quite a while. The story line is as fast as Superman's top speed and Moscow comes alive as if the reader is actually there. Charlie is a great character and this novel brings in much of a personal nature, making him seem even more human and less Bondish. Readers who enjoy modern day espionage novels, need to read all of Brian Freemantle's works because no one does the genre with so much justice. .......Harriet Klausner

Very out of date writing style and mode that was so bored for a reader to plough through the whole blabblings. A total reader deterrent book. I was fooled by the other reader's comments to read this one and found out a total different conclusion, and strongly suspect the person who recommended everybook with a 10 rating every time with GREAT! comments is a bookstore owner or a on-line book sales person

The book is interesting for many reasons. First, as with
many Paladin Press and Loompanic books, it is filled with
imaginative tales, stories, woven together in a light reading
manner, not dense or complicated.

Second, it stokes the reader's interest in the Carribean
region, and makes the entire Islands and Latin American region
seem very interesting but challenging to visit vs. the usual safe
Club Med or cliche's holiday sites. Many places, such as Belize,
Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Florida, Columbia, Aruba Island,
Costa Rica, Bimini, Caicos and Turks Isle, and others, are mentioned.

Third, the writer's story makes the reader keen in knowing more
about aircraft, and military operations, for example, air drops
planning, piloting skills perhaps learned in the US Air Force.
It also seems very intesting in the litany of aircraft models
and manufacturers mentioned, such as Cessna 404 Titans, Cesna
172, DC 7, DC4, DC6, Beech Sierra, Cherokee 6, Beech 33-A, E-2C
Hawkeye mini AWACS, regular AWAC, and other aircraft.

There are also ultra fast boats mentioned, such as the Scarab
Sport with 400 horse power, which seem fascinating.

There is a discussion on electronics surveillance, and the need
for counter-surveillance operations or at least, surveillance
detection systems, and names of suppliers of these types of
equipment.

There is a talk on the psychological aspects of import and
export businesses, as well as the historical and political
reasons for it. There's also a possibility the reason may
become intested in DEA, FBI, CIA, Coast Guard, or USAF
employment, to deal with all these aspects of a perhaps very
rewarding and interesting career.

All in all, a very imaginative book, that is non-conventional,
that could be entirely ficticious, for all we know, but is
well worth what the book sells for in the used book stores these
days, as Amazon says it's out of print.

This book isn't really about drug smuggling, it's about smuggling in other things like cigarettes and designer jeans and watches. These are things that you can profit $30,000 in one trip, but if you get caught the penalties are usually just a slap on the wrist. Not like with drug smuggling, where if you get caught you won't see the light of day for years to come.

This book is a bit outdated, as information changes from year to year in the smuggling game and new opportunities are popping up every year, but it gives one a general idea of the kinds of opportunities that're out there for someone who's willing to look for them, someone who wants to fly down to Rio and buy a few Rolex watches then smuggle them into the states and make a huge profit selling them for about three times what he paid (example).

Too bad it's out of print and there aren't any new books on this subject matter to replace it. If you can find a copy, I recommend it for the entrepreneur who doesn't give a rip about paying import duties.

I am a huge fan of Patricia Veryan, and The Riddle of the Lost Lover is consistent with her great work of the past. She has written better, but this book was enjoyable nonetheless. The plot was exciting, the romance was sweet, and I couldn't put the book down until the end. I love Toby and Paige! They are typical examples of Ms. Veryan's sparkling humor and wit. I hope they get their own books eventually. All in all, I really enjoyed this book.

Finally, the long-awaited sequel to Riddle of Alabaster Royal. This book was written in the typical Veryan style with wit, danger, and, of course, romance but I found myself wondering where the humor had gone! I found it for the most part to be in the character of Pierre, de Coligny's little boy but I couldn't find it in too many other places. I'm glad Jack's problems were resolved and the plot definitely offered some surprises. I have read everything Ms. Veryan has written and will continue to read them as they come.

Intelligent, stylish and well-realized near-future SF. Foy does well at portraying popular culture and infusing humor. His writing here is often beautiful.

Contraband, the story of a pilot in a world where secret cargo cults do battle with governnment agencies, follows one of the cargo cult philosophies: the journey is the destination. The plot is circular, and not especially strong. Still, the reasonably appealing characters, the original worldbuilding, and the strength of Foy's language carry the reader along.

Contraband is set in an extremely believable very-near-future in which multinational corporations dictate international law and second-generation biohazard mutants staff the toxic-waste dumps which were formerly known as wetlands. The Bureau of Nationalizations, or BON, is an international entity set up to interdict and dispose of smugglers like the pilot, who transports goods and people across international economic boundaries. The BON is a servant of the multinationals, whose economic interests are threatened by free trade. The BON regularly uses deadly force against smugglers; because of the economic challenge they provide to the multinationals, smugglers are considered equivalent to terrorists under US and international law.

Typical of Foy's work, Contraband is much too complex to summarize in a couple of paragraphs. The main character is the pilot, Joe "Skid" Marak, a good guy and professional smuggler who likes any mode of transportation that goes extremely fast and has a pet rat named God. BON has a programmer who has recently developed algorithms that allow BON to substantially increase their smuggler interdiction rate. Interdiction leads to immediate death or to sentencing without trial to a commercially-managed interrogation facility from which no one has ever been released. The increase in the interdiction ratio - which has resulted in the capture and sentencing of one of the pilot's best friends, the death of another, and a couple of very serious near misses on his own part - leads Marak on an international quest for the near-mythical Hawkley, who publishes the well-respected Smuggler's Bible and who reputedly knows what the new BON algorithm is and thus how to work around it.

Plus, there's lots of Foy's characteristically highly insightful treatment of human relationships, both romantic and otherwise. He also reinforces themes introduced in The Shift, such as people developing severe personality disorders which derive from a need for constant A/V stimulation and others perpetually confusing VR-delivered programming with real life. And in one nice and very subtle little twist, in one chapter intro Foy quotes one Mr. William Gates as the Chairman of the National Intelligence Committee (a tool of the BON, of course) as stating "... these people actually think they have the right to trade freely... without any regulation or permission from the government...".

George Foy is rapidly becoming one of my favorite writers. I couldn't put Contraband down.

The concept behind the book is a good one, but it was rather poorly executed. It started off okay, but as it got further, it became more of a chore to read. It didn't seem as if the author's heart was really in it. To see how this concept fares when properly executed, try Walter Jon Williams' *Hardwired*.

Contraband is set in the distopian near future, where the world is run by an increasingly repressive government that monitors all of its citizens activities and movements. The main charater is a smuggler living outside the law.

When the government creates a new system for catching smugglers, based on intercepted communications traffic and predictive modeling, the Pilot's world falls apart. He is shot down and nearly killed. His former girlfriend ends up in Bellevue when her brother, also a smuggler is presumed killed. The smuggler then goes off with a rag tag band the search for the creater of the smuggler's bible.

The book started off as a bit of a slog. At this point about two hundred pages in, the book started to pick up. Unfortunately, it didn't really last.

From here on the plot became progressively stranger and began to have some rather gaping holes. When told to go east, the pilot heads directly to a god forsaken spot in Asia with access soon to be cut off by the winter snows. We never find out why he went to this particular place.

The characters have a series of increasingly strange adventures, culminating their return to NY no closer to their objective of shutting down the government's new system. The characters clear up their personal growth issues and the book just ends with them deciding to go their separate ways. The story is never actually resolved, leaving me disappointed.

While the quality of the writing is excellent and the characters are well developed, if a bit odd, the plot is full of holes you could drive a semi through. And, the book was difficult reading. It only grabbed me briefly. Most of the time, I was just reading it because of my compulsion to finish the books I start and my hope that it would improve.

If science fiction set in the dismal future is your thing, you may enjoy this more than I did. I mostly found it depressing and not very interesting.

A wonderful novel about what technology enables the power structure--and the individual--to accomplish, told through the quest of a small band of people seeking their own freedom. Highly readable, blending a nice sense of computer-based semi-magical realism ("Any sufficiently advanced technology looks like magic", to paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke), this is a book that stays in your memory, both for its attention to detail (believability) and its themes.

even though i don't think much of his theory at the end of chapter six (about the behavior of the border guards) anyone interested in the real morocco will find many interesting stories and analysis here....many of the other reviews are from disgruntled students of the author and hopefully will be erased....

Mr. McMurray and his constituents in the Anthropology dept. at OSU choose the curriculum for ANTH 210, which is a required baccalaureate core class.

Mr. McMurray and his constituents chose this book, along with another of Mr. McMurray's books as REQUIRED TEXTS, along with a book titled "Catch Fire."

It is my opinion that this book was made mandatory for two reasons:

- It fits in with this cookie-cutter class, which hasn't been updated in years
- The anthropology department and Mr. McMurray make money for every book sold

David McMurray requires that students enrolled in his ANTH 210 course, Musics of Resistance, buy this book. Students are required to read it so that they can complete a little 15 point assignment. The book has nothing to do with the course, which focuses on different types of music in different cultures. The only real reason I can find for this requirement is so that the students of OSU are forced to purchase his book to increase how much money he recieves.

In and Out of Morocco is an account of the many ways migration has impacted a Moroccan border boom town. This is not just any Moroccan town: The place has been practically built by repatriated wages from migrants who've been heading to Europe to work for over forty years. The author also investigates the second most important source of change in the town; namely, smuggling. Together these two forces have had enormous effects on the people of Nador. I had to read the book for a course, but even so, I enjoyed the many different ways McMurray talked about socioeconomic changes. He provided a chapter on a work biography of a Nador migrant which dealt with the hardships imposed on families back home when migrants are away. He also devoted a chapter to the folklore of migration, and another to the way migration has even affected the music of the region. Most interesting for me was the chapter on the ways migrants have upset the status and prestige systems back in Nador; that, and the fascinating chapter on all of the smuggling across the local border with the Spanish North African city of Melilla. I recommend this book to students of anthropology who want to see how varied approaches to the study of migration can be.

McMurray's book, which is less an ethnological treatise than a window through which the layman can gain insight into the culture of the "Rif" region of northeastern Morocco, is an analysis of "the social and cultural impact of the twin economic activities of smuggling and migration on the people of Nador in the 1980's." That the book is long on interesting anecdote, and short on graphs, statistics and anthropological double talk, is no doubt its saving grace.

Not only does McMurray introduce us to many of the colorful characters of Nador--where he did field research in the late 1980's--but he also instills us with sympathy for a people torn between love of their homeland and the lure of Northern Europe, pulling at their desire for economic and personal freedom. Take Haddou, for example, his somewhat ornery landlord, who in spite of being married for about 30 years, has probably spent less that 3 of those years together with his family.

Out-migration is in the Moroccan blood. As one US diplomat says, "I hear the Moroccans are the 'Mexicans' of Europe." We learn that before Europe, Algeria was the land of choice for emigration (who would have ever guessed such a thing?). We learn that Spain, formerly a country that Moroccans merely passed through on their way to Germany, France, Holland and Germany, is now becoming a premier final emigration destination, as its GDP moves upward, and as anti-immigrant sentiment grips the colder parts of Europe.

Back in Nador, many Nadoris are resentful for the fact that repatriated Moroccans, with repatriated wages, have greatly inflated the cost of local weddings. Not to be outdone, the local Nadoris figure out numerous ways to get back at the "nouveau rich" for rocking the boat of class distinctions.

And through it all McMurray juxtaposes the story of his own family--his son Charlie, born into Moroccan society; his wife Joan (a much needed "confidant" for that scoop on womens'issues)--against the varied mosaic of Rifi culture.

Speaking of womens' issues, the entire time McMurray is in Nador, he never meets his landlord's wife (obviously because of the sexually segregated nature of Nadori society). Indeed, he hardly meets his landlord for that matter, as the latter is in Germany nearly 11 months of each year. But the conservative nature of Moroccan society can't stop a couple of single women from occasionally dropping by, where they entertain themselves in McMurray's kitchen, smoking, letting their hair down, and (un)knowingly?, giving up valuable information for this book.

In all, a good read, with lots of colorful characters and rich dialogue that leaves the reader with a true feeling for the dynamics of life in a tiny country crying out for economic equality.

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The Golden Gizmo is a tall tale which meanders aimlessly, ultimately winding up nowhere. Written with sufficient surrealism to easily accomodate a supporting character that happens to be a talking dog, there just isn't anything here to engage the reader's interest.
The main character, Todd Kent, is an early incarnation of Roy Dillon, the young L.A. con artist Thompson so masterfully brought to life in The Grifters. But that's where any similarity between the two novels begins and ends.
The Golden Gizmo is a real clunker. Sometimes even great writers like Jim Thompson will step up to the plate and strike out. Not recommended.

This is almost a decent novel. If it didn't come from the author of that masterpiece, "The Grifters," I might have given it an extra star or two.

What's really painful is that there's a lot of good stuff here. The characters, as always, are fascinating. And only Jim Thompson could make a talking dog a convincing player in a noir thriller! But his cleverness here only serves to highlight his childish plot gimmicks. When you find out what happened to The Missing Body, you'll want to scream in frustration.

Like most of Jim Thompson's novels, the story turns on a series of criminal events. Toddy Kent is a man with the "golden gizmo" -- a psychic sense that can lead him to riches just as readily as to disaster. This book is textured with curiosities -- Teddy is married to a woman who drives him mad; a gold buyer for a reputable dealer, he stumbles into a steady supply of the highest grade gold and finds himself pursued by a ruthless, chinless man, a beautiful young woman, and a blood-thirsty dog that can talk and sings hymns. Most other writers would see the story fall around their ears, but Thompson deftly, gleefully pulls it off!

I'm a big Thompson fan; THE GOLDEN GIZMO is the 12th of his books I've read. Unfortunately, it may be my least favorite so far. The story is about Toddy Kent, a typical Thompson grifter who is working as a door-to-door gold buyer (does anyone really do this job?). He's semi-legit now because he's working for an honest gold buyer. However, in a typical Thompson ploy, he accidentally gets into trouble by knocking on the wrong door while trying to buy gold. In this house, Toddy encounters a chinless man, a Hispanic woman, and a talking dog. Yes, the dog talks. I like some surreal writing, but the device of having the dog talk wasn't really used to much benefit here and really just undermined the action for me. Toddy becomes entangled in various problems related to the chinless man and corrupt gold sellers. The plot hinges on far too many coincidences for my taste, and it really was just too confusing. Almost every other chapter ends with someone else clobbering Toddy or pulling a gun on him. All of Thompson's skills as a crime noir writer seemed to have deserted him with this book, much like Toddy's golden gizmo. If you're a fan of Thompson, THE GOLDEN GIZMO is a passable read. Otherwise, I suggest Thompson classics like THE GRIFTERS or THE GETAWAY.

This isn't a necessary Thompson read, but it is enjoyable, especially parts concerning the dog. Those expecting something warped will be disappointed, but it's decent for those of us who plan on reading everything Thompson has written.

Ian Fleming started his writing career as a journalist before discovering his imagination was both an easier and more lucrative source to work from, yet always strove to play reporter in the guise of presenting background in his James Bond novels. Fleming's one attempt at a non-fiction book thus held promise, yet fails to deliver.

"The Diamond Smugglers" is based on a series of conversations Fleming purports to have with a diamond-smuggling investigator he names "John Blaize." I say purports because Blaize's words, both as quoted by Fleming and in an introduction supposedly penned by Blaize, sound very much like Fleming. "The trouble with diamonds is every stone carries the germ of crime in it," Blaize explains.

The trouble with "The Diamond Smugglers" is not so much its sense of unreliability but that it's boring. Instead of capers, we get a geography lesson of coastal Africa. The device of channeling the narrative second-hand creates an automatic disengagement with a series of unimpressive tales about investigations undertaken for the great diamond mining interests of the time by what came to be known as the International Diamond Security Organzation, or IDSO. From what can be gathered but is never directly said in this book, the IDSO didn't exactly accomplish very much, yet Blaize adopts a stultifying self-congratulatory tone from beginning to end.

Smugglers, Blaize tells us in his introduction, "will hear of this book and read it, out of fear or vanity, to see if their activities have been revealed or their names mentioned." Or perhaps for a laugh at the authorities who tried so fruitlessly to root them out.

Stories include an investigation into how Liberia, not one of Africa's more diamondiferous nations, became a clearinghouse for diamond export. In one case, a small-time smuggler who keeps a diamond in a vaseline jar is snitched out by a pretend-friend angling for promotion. At one point, the IDSO tries to run a double agent, but he comes back with nothing.

When another double agent dies in a plane crash just as he is on the verge of cracking a case, Blaize labels it "curious" and leaves it be. We are told of great criminal figures who spirit away some diamonds and melt into the shadows, but Fleming and Blaize assure us we are safer not knowing their names.

As journalism, this wouldn't merit a segment of "60 Minutes." The book is only worth reading for the view it gives us of James Bond's creator switching gears, apparently while researching his Bond novel "Diamonds Are Forever." The best parts are when Fleming sets the stage for his conversations with Blaize, in levanter-battered cafes or beaches, where we get that sense of place Fleming conveyed so well. Some humor, too: At one point, in Morocco, Fleming and Blaize avert suspicions about what they're up to by pretending to have a captured coelacanth, a "living fossil" fish whose discovery was all the rage at the time, in a bathtub.

Fleming pronounces himself impressed at the end with this real-life "secret agent," calling him "a professional to his fingertips." Yet the only thing John Blaize has in common with James Bond are his initials. Otherwise he comes across as a boring bureaucrat with some dusty second-hand stories to throw up. Fleming, in passing them on so breathlessly, seems to have been a bit of a dupe.

This book by Flemming is interesting and well written. I like it because it is non-fiction and is a true story (unlike his Bond novels). A real Flemming fanatic will love this wonderful book. I rate it a 4 star book and a piece well done.

Ian Fleming is wonderful in this non-fiction story of diamond smuggling in the late fifties. Very well written. Fleming did his homework on this one. Claims to have written it with a chap called John Blaize, of a diamond organization. Went to Africa to research it with Blaize. Very good, because it is true, unlike his Bond novels.

Back in the 1950's, the smuggling of diamonds from Africa took on the proportions of a James Bond novel. In this non-fiction account of those times, Fleming outlines the successful counterintelligence effort which was used to bring the rampart smuggling under control.

A bit dry, but Fleming fans will appreciate the Bondesque style the story is recounted in.

Twelve-year-old Damaris is wise for her years, since she has been raised along the southern English coast where smugglers make frequent runs. She knows not to ask certain questions which will embarrass her father, when she can use her eyes and ears to interpret the activities of the Fair Traders (as they are called). Her best friend in her childhood adventures is Peter, the vicar's son, a loyal and eager comrade. They even have a private playhouse, a ramshackle lost cottage half falling in, which she names "Jouous Gard" after Sir Lancelot's castle.

One day after a nocturnal run, she discovers a young stranger lying near their cottage, badly wounded and barely conscious. Mentally claiming him as her own and adopting his cause--whatever it might be--Damaris enlists Peter's aid to carry him into their hideout, to sneak food and provide company. They realize that they need adult medical skill to remove the bullet from "the Smuggler's" knee, so Damaris turns to the Wise Woman (polite name for an old woman wiih knowledge of herbs and often darker matters). Genty offers her services and her home to help this unknown young man, whom even in his delirium Daramris considers romantic.

This is one adventure she will not share with her family. The only name he gives is Tom Wildgoose, but what is he carrying so closely guarded in an oilskin bag around his neck? Could he really be a smuggler or is he part of the cargo? Whose side is he on: King George, France or Scotland? None of that matters to Damaris, who risks a great deal to save him.

The title refers to her girlhood wish for a scarlet petticoat like the one the gypsy girl wore when she danced for the community last season. A flaming piece of material frippery which she does Not need, which would have shocked her father and aunt. But few adults understand a girl's dream of freedom and joy of living, which such a petticoat represents for her. This is a light novel of adventure and mild intrigue, which will appeal to elementary children--especially the parts about deceiving parents in order to achieve a noble goal. Not to mention risking her soul by getting involved in the Black Arts. Was she right to place her trust in a total stranger who could prove a traitor to her country or a threat to her body? Was helping him worth the real dangers she willingly undertook on his behalf? Twentieth Century Children's writers states: "In Rosemary Sutcliff's hands, the children's historical novel has gained passion, insight and depth." A truly enjoyable read.

There are many good stories here, but I'm not sure they should have been in the same book. Whenever the narrative gained momentum, it came to an abrupt halt as another character (with complete back story) was introduced. I know this was done to ultimately link the characters and stories through the logic of number theory (hence the title), but for me it didn't work. I became frustrated with a book that I really wanted to like and ended up skimming the last 100 pages.