****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Mike Greene has performed a valuable public service by making available to us a highly readable yet equally highly informative book on how to avoid becoming a victim of criminal behavior during one's visit to New York City. The author shares with us the lessons he has learned as a 20 year veteran of the City's police department in a way that is non-condescending to the occasional visitor yet respectful of the difficulties associated with the time-consuming, painstaking work required by detectives and other police personnel. In between bits of tragedy -- such as that associated with the 9-11 attacks, the author offers occasional comic relief letting us know that "cops are people too." Mr. Greene, in his introductory comments, informs us that his book should not take more than a hour or so to read;he does not disappoint us in that respect as he takes us on excursions of criminal mischief as it occurs in hotel rooms, aboard cruise liners as well as on the streets of "The Big Apple." A must-read for both the occasional and seasoned visitor to New York who wishes to avoid the horrors of entanglement in the criminal justice system -- whether as a as a victim of their own misjudgments of human nature or the unique elements of the modern urban social environment. Mike Greene has engulfed his non-fictional characters in a narrative style which brings out the humanness in both the seedy pickpocket culprit and the noble cop-on-the-beat. Whether or not Mr. Greene develops his story-telling talent to the level of a full-length novel remains to be seen (or read), but there is no doubt that "How to Survive in New York" is an excellent start.
