100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative’s Guide to Eluding Pursuers, Evading Capture, and Surviving Any Dangerous Situation Paperback – October 13, 2015

I'm only writing this so poorly because I got the Kindle edition. If you're going to get this book with all the illustrations you definitely need to book. The Kindle edition sucks!

Despite its title, retired Navy SEAL Clint Emerson's "100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative's Guide to Eluding Pursuers, Evading Capture, and Surviving Any Dangerous Situations", is as often applicable to civilian life as to clandestine operations. Tips include skills on avoiding such annoyances as car thefts, carjackings, home invasions and burglaries. Hint: never leave your keys in your car. We all know this, but when the advice comes from somebody who can also tell you how to steal a car, maybe it will sink in. And that valet key some car dealers put in your owner’s manual? Repeat after me: it’s a key. Put it in a safe place that’s not in your car.

For travelers, Emerson offers such tips on hotel safety as asking for a room midway between elevators and stairways. And why you probably don’t want a room on the ground floor.

Every skill (usually discussed on a single page) is broken down into its critical parts, has a bottom line takeaway, and is illustrated with clear line drawings by storyboard artist Ted Slampyak.

I had hoped not to have to deal with the discussion of active shooters (Skill #073) or other armed aggressors, but recent events in Paris and San Bernardino, California, make these pertinent. Those of us who aren’t hero wannabes will be relieved to know that people finding themselves in such dire situations can often be saved by following Emerson’s commonsense tips that don’t require the response of blazing guns, at least not from civilians.

In fact, his first recommendation for evading danger is to run. His second recommendation is to hide. Fighting is always the last option.

When running, remember it’s harder for a shooter to hit a moving target, so run in a zigzag pattern or from cover to cover. If running is not an option, hide out of the shooter’s view, silence digital devices and follow Emerson’s additional suggestions for preferred cover objects and improvised ballistic armor.

Fighting unarmed against a gunman? Emerson says it can be done successfully, but I’ll leave readers to check out his tips for themselves.

Aside from practical skills, the book has enough juicy material on SEAL and other covert operations tactics to make it a must-read for writers in the mystery and thriller genres. Everybody’s favorite groaner is the rectal concealment device. Consider making your own to give to the naughtiest acquaintances on your naughty list. Or if they continue to annoy you, see Emerson’s discussion of body disposal, including the tips for burial at sea which, I assume, were followed in disposing of the body of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.

I saw the author, ret. SEAL Clint Emerson, discussing this book on television and after seeing him elaborate on a sample of “skills”, I immediately ordered it. 100 DEADLY SKILLS offers a wealth of common-sense techniques used by elite military operators that can be applied for civilian use (for the most part). I found the book’s value centered more on making the reader smarter, more aware and more prepared; not as a tool to instigate trouble.

I like (“American Sniper”) Chris Kyle’s simplified view of people: there are the sheep, the wolves that prey on the sheep and those who take on the wolf to protect the sheep … the sheepdogs. 100 DEADLY SKILLS’ purpose is to provide readers with enough necessary information to become sheepdogs. The method is simple, provide the sheep (easy victim) with the same tools and know-how wolves (criminals, terrorists, etc.) use on their prey … fighting fire with fire.

The simple presentation of the material is particularly effective. There are no long, laborious chapters of text to sift through. Emerson generally uses a two-page technique for each of the 100 skills he presents. The left page provides a brief, easily understood explanation of a particular skill and the right page offers a simple step-by-step graphic presentation of the skill. This one-two punch makes a solid impression that is easy to remember. The range of skills covered in the book is diverse and some of the skills are a little extreme (hopefully, most readers will wonder why they need to know how to dispose of a body). But, again, I sense that the purpose of this information is less about actually USING each and every skill as it is making people understand that most of the skills presented are already commonly used by those with ill-intent … the power is knowing what they know and finding ways to avoid or effectively counter their methods. Emerson calls the understanding/use of these skills characteristic of the “Violent Nomad” (or, in Chris Kyle’s world, the tools of the sheepdog).

So, for those of us who don’t really have a need for knowing how to: Dispose of a Body (skill #86), Steal a Plane (#26) or Cross Enemy Boarders by Sea, Air and Land (#11, #12 and #13) … what does reading such a book offer? Quite a lot, actually. First of all, I read this book while on a vacation and it provided several practical tips pertaining to everyday travel: how to hide things in a room and how to discover whether or not your suitcases have been opened. Additionally, it revealed how unsecure you really are in your hotel room with instructions on how to bypass hotel room doors and unlatch door locks. The section on surveillance techniques probably won’t come in handy for most, but understanding how to detect and lose those who may be sizing you as a potential victim certainly may be useful. Educating people on personal, cultural, situational and third-party awareness (#17 Blend into Any Environment) is probably one of the most important skills presented in the book because it’s the one skill that can be employed to avoid using most of the other skills (by having the presence of mind to avoid a potentially deadly encounter). 100 DEADLY SKILLS is filled with useful instructions on weapon improvisation, defense and safety techniques that certainly could be useful in dire situations; as well as common inconveniences, like being locked out of your home (#50 Defeat a Padlock or #53 Discretely Open a Garage Door).

100 DEADLY SKILLS is a tremendous source of USEFUL information that gets readers out of their comfort zone. Most everything presented is based on common-sense and uses common household items with a little ingenuity. Some may see such a book as equivalent to “giving the fox the keys to the henhouse”, but the author asserts most all of the items discussed in the book are commonly used by criminals/terrorists; we just don’t realize it. By giving us a better understanding of the criminal-mind’s ingenuity, we are better prepared to avoid/survive a negative encounter (especially for those who travel to less-than-friendly parts of the world).

I purchased his book with great anticipation, as I read and heard about it. It makes an interesting read, but as informative as it is, it is mostly geared toward the spy or nefarious person. It is not written for the average person. There are some good tips to keep safe when traveling and for self-protection. I like the book, but others may not. It’s definitely a quick read. I read it in a couple of hours in one sitting. Some things in it are not “deadly skills”, not a skill at all, just how to do something. Some are just common sense.
Overall, an interesting and informative read with some helpful tips, but it’s not a typical survival or prepper book, which I had heard it was. Think of this as a book for spies, or criminals. Definitely not for the average Joe. As the author himself said at the very beginning of the book, “the information is adapted from the world of special operations”. Remember that when you read it and you shouldn’t be disappointed.