WHERE THE MONEY IS: True Tales from the Bank Robbery Capital of the World

With the style and pacing of a good novel, Rehder portrays the great variety of bandits he pursued in his more than 30 years with the FBI, almost all of it in Los Angeles. Reaching a peak in 1992 of 2,641 hits, the number of bank heists in the City of Angels is surprising, as is the small take on most jobs, often under a thousand dollars. The numbers raise questions about what motivates people to go into robbery, and Rehder wisely spends more time discussing the bandits, their psychology and their MOs than he does the minutiae of law enforcement. In fact, he repeatedly describes the FBI strategy as hoping the guy pulls another job and screws up this time. Rehder focuses on five main subjects: the most prolific one-on-one bandit (when a single robber holds up a bank teller) in history, a gang leader who ran takeover jobs using mostly kids, an unapprehended group that tunneled into a Hollywood bank, a bank manager who helped her policeman boyfriend get more than $700,000, and a pair of loners who died in a North Hollywood shootout. He fattens the package with innumerable anecdotes from other heists, as variations on a theme—and the pages turn quickly. Crime reporter Dillow is probably responsible for the gritty turns of phrase, but the book is entirely in the first person, and

Rehder himself emerges from the beginning as a compelling and complex character. This should become a standard in the genre. (July)