Customer Reviews

Ragnar's Guide To Interviews, Investigations, And Interrogations: How To Conduct Them, How To Survive Them

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I was looking forward to reading this book. But once I started, I was sorry I bought this book.

This book promises a lot. But does not really deliver on the promises. When I finished reading the book, I was not convinced that I knew more about either conducting "interviews" or surving "interrogations."

Each chapter ends with "Tips for potential witnesses." This by far is the most useful section of the book. If you read these "tips," you will know the book. This is the first "tip" of the book: "1. What should you do if you don't wish to talk to an investigator? An obvious but incorrect answer is to refuse to do so." page 19. Yes, Mr. Benson does go into more detail about this question.

The book is organized thus: Introduction; 1 What Makes a Successful Investigator?; 2 The Fine Arts of Listening and Observing; 3 What are Pretexts and How Are They Used?; 4 Civil vs. Criminal Proceedings and Rules of Evidence; 5 Criminal Investigations; 6 Once Witnesses are in the Legal Pipeline; 7 Surviving a Cross-Examination; 8 Military Interrogations; Conclusion. There is no bibliography.

If this topic interests a reader, then see if you can find the book, "Ask Me No Questions, I'll Tell You No Lies." The reader will learn more than Bensons' tome.

I really didn't learn anything from this book. Its focus was centered around Private Investigators use of pretext's. Pretexts are lies that are told to solicit information out of an interviewee. They can range from, "You will be in trouble if you don't help me," to the opposite, "You know, I did the same thing. It's alright to admit to the crime." If that makes sense, then don't read this book and save yourself [the money].

I was hoping for a book that would give away all the secrets to interrogation and making people spill the beans. Instead I got an arrogant sermon on how important and powerful the author thinks private investigators and security guards are. He claims that anyone who does not talk to an investigator can be forced to give deposed testimony (total bull). Being an ex-private investigator, the author's tips are worthless. I want a book that exposes professional interrogation training like the Reid Technique and heuristical interrogation techniques. This book is a complete waste of money.

Here's the book in a nutshell:
-If you are a PI, you should come up with a few lies and use them on people (ex: you already know information from someone else involved, you're an unbiased reporter writing a story, you're calling about a job interview, there was an eye witness that came forward, etc...)
-If you are getting interviewed, the police have the right to lie to you so don't give them any information even if they say they already know or if they say you won't get in trouble.

That's it. Every chapter is basically a variation of those two things. Total waste of time, save your money.
I bought this book because I heard interesting things about Benson's books. If this is an indication of what his other books are like, then don't bother with any of them. Interviews, Investigations, and Interrogations, is a great idea for a book, but there's no substance. The whole thing you could have basically guessed at and not wasted your time or money. He doesn't give any real practical information.

What a waste of money! As it turns out, this guy writes a lot of books about subjects of which he knows very little about. I recommend staying away from anything written by Ragnar Benson!!!!!

I like all of Ragnar Bensons books, i own alot of them. After i finally watched Man on Fire a couple weeks ago.... i know! I decided to buy this book.

It's not easy to read, maybe thats why EVERYONE seems to hate it so much. CIA torture should have made it into the book. That would make the liberals mad! The point of the book is to teach you how to stay calm if your being asked questions, and how to tell if someone is lying to you and how to get the info you want from someone else. Maybe some people thought they were gonna be able to pull a rabbit out of their hat after reading this book? Get this book and watch Man on Fire shortly afterwards. Maybe that will make the book seem better and sink in a bit.

I own almost every book he wrote, ive never been upset.

This book is a primer on interrogation tactics used by police, detectives, and military. It written at a low level, and would greatly benefit all middle school students (especially minorities) so that they do not needlessly confess to authorities. However, there is no reference to actual police and military training manuals, not even a bibliography.

The bottom line: police spend four years in college learning to manage interrogations by application of stress, trickery, and outright lies, all of which are perfectly legal. Unless you are a highly trained prisoner-of-war, you have no chance against them. Your only hope is to refuse to play. Don't even engage in casual conversation, as the skillfull interviewer will use that to lead you where he wants you to go! Talking to the police or other authority is as dumb as getting into a gunfight with them; either of these will end up with you the loser.

As the distinction between military and police are blurred under the pretext of U.S. Department of Fatherland Security, interrogations of suspects are going to get a lot nastier, and civil rights will frequently be set aside in the interests of the Fatherland. Therefore, it is important for young people to be educated on effective resistance methods, and to be vaccinated against police pressure tactics.