The other day I was in my local university library, which is a place of wonder and magnificence. In my corner (South Wing, sixth floor) there are shelves and shelves of books devoted to crime – from the early research into criminology (fabulous titles, such as “The Juvenile Criminal: His Mind and Body”) right up to current publications. As you can imagine, I waste a lot of time here, browsing and snooping, under pretence of “work research”. And occasionally I do wonder how I came to this.
I’ve been working in AML now for absolutely ages, and people predicted that I would get bored, that I should broaden out into other areas of criminality, but they were wrong. The thrill I get on spotting a book in SW6 (library, not London) with the word “money” on the spine is probably a cause for worry. And when I spoke to my husband on the phone today to ask whether he had paid the window-cleaner, he had to point out that I kept talking about “the money-launderer” instead. I really should get out more – perhaps a quick visit to the library this afternoon would help…
