This book offers a good historical perspective of the necessity of a police force to keep civil order in a society. It also contains much of the debate about the dangers of such a force if it is not constituted with checks and balances. Besides this the story of the creation of Scotland yard in London from the 1730's to the 1830's is told with interesting characters and is in good taste, although realistic in portraying these characters. I highly recommend it.

To the first reviewer's comments (all true btw) I would add that this would have been a perfect subject for a miniseries. They wouldn't have done justice to it but nevertheless............

This is one of the best books ever written in this genre which is historical fiction., not mystery or suspense as one might think. There Mr. Creasey was the author of over 600 books using at least 17 psudonyms. This is the story of the birth of the western concept of a police force starting slightly before the Bow Street Runners and continuing on through the creation of the 1st modern police by Sir Robert Peel in the mid 1800's. To the best of my knowledge the historical "facts " used by the author are accurate and the storyline is first rate. In my opinion this was the best effort of a very good career. This book should never have gone out of print

this book is wonderful it tells people the side of child abuse nobody wants to believe. the side of the protective service people damaging the children emotionally and mentally... please read if you ever had issues with protective services it will make you watch things alot more carefully..

Ironically, one of most potent and multifaceted visual metaphors is the eye itself. In this book, Francis Huxley blends science, art, mythology, and religion to demonstrate the layers of meaning in the image of the eye. The text is interspersed with drawing, diagrams, and color plates throughout, so the entire book is quite visually engaging. Huxley explores the eye as a symbol of the Sacred, as a praeternatural attribute of monsters, as a weapon (e.g. "the evil eye"), and as an emblem of what is highest in human nature. The images in the book draw from ancient and modern sources worldwide. This is a wonderful and thought-provoking book about this ubiquitous symbol.

I've always thought that The Toff would make a great TV series. The Baron, also by John Creasey, was very successful in UK and USA. This book recounts one of The Toff's adventures abroad and may seem old fashioned to some because he travels by luxury liner not by air!! This only adds to the charm of the adventure which has lots of interesting characters including a New York cabbie Sikoski and good locations such as the Waldorf Astoria. The Toff has to rescue a kidnapped millionaire business man from a gang of New York hoodlums and has lots of interesting encounters before bringing the case to a successful conclsion. I bought my copy years ago in paperback by Coronet and have fifteen titles in all and would recomment them to anyone who likes private detective fiction. Any TV producers reading this please note!

Written nearly 20 years ago, Alvarez focuses mostly on the personalities that made up the early years of the World Series of Poker, the Binions, David Sklansky, Doyle Brunson, Stu Unger and many others. He gives their personal histories and repeats anecdotes that help explain them. He also gives a decent profile of Vegas itself and the many regional poker masters from around the world who come to Vegas to lose all their money.

I know this book is 20 years old, so its not particularly surprising that most of the anecdote and stories seem old. Its all about Johnny Moss and Nick the Greek and Amarillo Slim and Doyle Brunson. Naturally there's a new posse in the world of poker today, Men the Master Nguyen, Phil Hellmuth , Poker Dick Cook. and the brilliant Russell Rosenblum. The world of the world series of poker has changed much since this book was written in 1983, there remains a question even about how much longer Binions will host the world series and the there is a real possiblity that Bellagio will even buy the trademarked name. This book advertises itself as a timeless cult classic, and as a period piece from 25 years ago, A. Alvarez captured a time and place. I wonder how much of this however will resound as novel to the poker player of today. When Alvarez mentioned Stu Unger winning the world series, it left me wanting to read about how stu ungar moved from world champion to dying in a run down Vegas motel room. Or when he talked about Ted Binion running Binions, the mind flashes to the fact that binion has since been murdered .Plenty of good advice in here for hold em play, of course the problem in gambling isn't usually knowing what to do, its being able to do it, to fight fatigue, to fight temptation to play too many hands, to summon up the courage to pitch aces when you know they have been cracked. The problem with the gamblig genre is that there just arent that many good books out there. Too many agents and publishers think they won't sell and bookstores tend to look down on gambling books as being anti-literary. Snobbery in the bookstore world is a real problem, as anyone who has ever asked a proprietor if they carry the Racing Form on their mag rack will quickly find out.

Fine reading for anyone that has been around the poker scene. Alvarez provides a beautiful and captivating description of the vegas poker scene during the ealy 80's. A captivating and inspirational read.

The only reason this didn't get 5 stars is because it does not have as many movies as "Maltin's Movie and Video Guide." I buy "Maltin's Move and Video Guide" on odd numbered years and "Video and DVD Guide" by Martin and Porter on even numbered years. Maltin has the best, most comprehensive movie reviews and Martin and Porter have the best cast index. Between the two you can find everything you could possibly want!

What I have always liked about VDG/VMG is the fact that you can find movies by actors. This is something other books dont offer.

I've been turning to Martin and Porter for around 13 years now and all I can say is that I eagerly await each year's edition. This year sees the Video Movie Guide (VMG) renamed the Video & DVD Guide (VDG). When I first went looking for a paperback movie guide to keep on my desk, I spent a lot of time checking out the competition and found them all lacking in some area. Leonard (who is quite film savvy) and I just didn't see eye-to-eye at all. If he didn't like a certain genre, those type of movies didn't get a fair shake. Many of the others were geared for family viewing (which is fine but I've been there, done that, and have moved on to encompass a wide range of films). The only one that I found to be fair and have the technical info (color or b&w, running time, rating, subtitles, year released, cast, director, etc.) that I was looking for was VDG. I've watched the book's format change (for the better) over the years (I happily don't have to figure out the genre of the movie before looking it up anymore). After reading some of the other reviews, I understand the frustration of not having all of an actor's or director's films listed but if you read the Foreward/Introducton to VDG you'd know that only available (for rent and/or purchase) titles are covered (at the time of publication). This is why I've kept my old VMGs for reference. Nobody seems to mind when a book or DVD has an incomplete filmography on an actor or director so what's the beef?