The author, Ransom Riggs, tends to do a lot of journalism and recounts of interesting or unusual events; rather like Watson, no? I carry a copy of his handbook everywhere, because you never know when you may have to disguise your appearance, leap from the face of a cliff or beat someone with a stick in just such a fashion. There are subsections for all of these in the book, under the Life Skills and Survival Skills sections, respectively; but it also talks about the art of tracing footprints, how to look for and identify fingerprints, decode cyphers, analyze typing, crack safes and keep bees! It's a super fun book, and I recommend it to any aspiring crime fighters, bee keepers, or geeky murder mystery writers like myself. I got my copy for fourteen bucks on sale at Borders Books & Music, but the printed price is 16.95. Not a cheap book, but I think it's definitely worth the money.