Gangland Sydney

This workmanlike survey of crime in a major Australian city, from the authors of Gangland Melbourne, sacrifices depth for breadth, and raises far more questions than it answers. Readers are treated to an overly detailed litany of gangland violence, with little attempt to place those acts in a broader context. The authors state that despite extreme "mayhem" in 1939, Sydney was less violent than Melbourne, but don't even try to explain why. Readers also won't learn why women played a more prominent role than those in the U.S. mafia, why it was only in 1997 that Sydney cops were barred from drinking on duty, or why most of the cast of characters got their colorful nicknames. The pair even manage to make the dramatic story of an arrest based on a tattooed arm found in the belly of a shark hum-drum. The chronological approach isn't used consistently, with some confusing results, and the writing is sometimes sloppy. Photos. (Feb.)