Headspace: Sniffer Dogs, Spy Bees and One Woman's Adventures in the Surveillance Society

by Amber Marks

Crime detection has gone to the dogs and squirrels are being busted for espionage. If you've never wondered about the new direction of 'intelligence-led policing' in our society, now is the time to start.

It was a chance encounter with a police sniffer-dog that drew criminal lawyer Amber Marks into the hidden world of the science of smell and its law-enforcement applications. Soon she stumbled into a wonderland of contemporary surveillance, where the spying skills of bees, dolphins and a myriad other critters were being harnessed to build a 'secure world' of bio-intelligence. From the businesses, scientists and military departments developing new smell-based surveillance technologies, to good old-fashioned police dogs, Amber discovered a secret world of security forces, where animals and scent are as important as intelligence agents and CCTV.

Part polemical exploration of our burgeoning surveillance society, part humorous memoir, this intriguing book will capture your imagination and get you wondering: just who stands to benefit from all this 'security'?

Genres: Nonfiction

358 pages, Paperback

First published January 8, 2009

Reviews

[Beverly]

I'm not sure why the author pretends to be an idiot sometimes. And at other instances the level of detail is a bit dull. Otherwise, it's pretty entertaining for a 'pop-surveillance studies' book.

[Paul Holden · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of this book was a solid four star. The author was smart, funny and personable. It seemed partly like a biography but then the second half got far too serious and technical into smell detection. There was too much focus on various far-fetched surveillance ideas using animals discussed at security services conferences.

[Neko · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a bit all over the place. I fell asleep a few times while reading it. I think this would of worked better as a novel with a lot of fine tuning. Yeah, I'd say give this a skip. I found it for cheap price and now I know why.

[Angelina Souren · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very entertaining must-read.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this by the side of my sister's bath. Picked it up to read it and now it's travelled 5000 miles with me back to SF...

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book's a bit of a slow burner--it's hard to adjust to Marks' voice and motivations, but the information she gathers snowballs, as does the reader's interest.

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, some weird facts and funny in part, rattles along easily for a non-fiction book, but ultimately thin on drwaing any conclusions. I was left feeling 'so what'.

[Brendon · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of a brain dump than a novel with narrative, this dystopian view of how nature can be used for surveillance purposes is a touch fantastical which detracts from the subjects credibility.

[Weasel · Rating 3 out of 5]

An......interesting read.