Recent Book: The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
| Published date | 01 October 1982 |
| Date | 01 October 1982 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X8205500421 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
TED
WILLIS: The Most Beautiful Girl in the World.
London: Macmillan. £6.95.
A beauty queen disappears suddenly and the missing girl. The plot is rather thin
reappears uponan islandin the Carribean and takesa long time to disclose but Mr.
as the very reluctant guest of a newly Willis is a more than competent author
emerging religious sect. Her boyfriend, who manages to retain his readers'
Steve Ugley, unexpectedly the recipient attention and the story builds up to an
of a large fortune, sets up a detective exciting conclusion.
agency whose first commission is to find B.C.
JOHN
B.
WOLF:
Fear
of
Fear: A Survey
of
Terrorist Operations and Controls
in Open Societies
Plenum Press. U.S. $22.
This book is one of a series on Criminal restrict ransom payments; computer-
Justice and Public Safety sponsored by based police intelligence; problems of
the John JayCollegeofCriminalJustice, dealing with the media; the U.S. police
New York, where the author teaches. Itis SWAT units; prospects for nuclear
designed to be of use to "members of the terrorism; case studies from Northern
police services of the world, the criminal Ireland, Spain, France, Italy and
justice community as an entity, the Germany. These are a few of some 50
personnel of the intelligence services
...
" topics examined in this part
ofthe
book.
and others. I think that it succeeds in its
There
are
also
some
admirable
aim. Appendices analyzing, for example, a
Part I provides a comprehensive year (1979-80) of activity by the I.R.A.,
analysis of terrorist organizations (cells, E.T.A., the Red Brigades and three other
columns, dead drops, cutouts, sympathizer movements, an account of the successful
groups, etc.), tactics, and manipulation police operations against the Red Army
of the democratic process.Wolfconcludes Faction since 1977 and, in parallel, the
that
there is collaboration between gradual erosion of the Red Brigades by
movements and clandestine support by the Italian police since the murder of
some foreign governments, mainly in the Aldo Moro.
form of arms, money and expertize but The book is particularly well designed
nothing which could be described as for busy people as a reference book. The
central direction. He considers that most table of contents is extremely clear and
of their ideologies are little more than a there is a good index. For a quick
cynical veneer to attract wider left wing refresher on such varied topics as the
support for nationalist or similar political Libyan role in world terrorism, target
aims. This part
of.
the book is well selection, some Achilles heels of terrorist
illustrated by examples, including a organizations, the German terrorist
number from the I.R.A. There is a prison annex at Stammheim or nuclear
valuable chapter on terrorist expertize in terrorism, you will be able to find it
escaping from prison, with a large quickly and read what he has' to say in
number of case studies. one or two pages. Inevitably, some depth
PartII of the book will beof particular must be sacrificed to achieve such brevity
value to police officers who wish to but for professional readers it serves its
broaden their understanding of the purpose well. It is a highly practical book
problems of controlling terrorism in free commendably free of jargon. I have
societies. Every aspect is dealt with placed it where I can reach for it easily
concisely: police training; the pros and and I can see myself reaching for it a lot.
cons of special task forces; attempts to Richard Clutterbuck
HOME
OFFICE:
Report
of
Her Majesty's Inspector
of
Prisonsfor Englandand Wales
1981.
H.M.S.O. £4.35.
HOME
OFFICE:
Report on the work
of
the Prison Department 1981.
H.M.S.O. £7.50.
Recently during a prison visit a trainee
magistrate described the conditions in a
local prison as better than expected.
394
What the lady's expectations were never
emerged, but this is a local prison where
slopping out is an unpleasant daily
October 1982
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