text: "The Island of Lost Maps" is the story of a petty crook named Gilbert Bland who stole rare and irreplaceable maps in the '90s.  Posing as a researcher, Bland would enter rare-book collections and slice old maps out of antique atlases with a single-edged razor.  Then he would sell the maps to unsuspecting -- or at least unquestioning -- dealers.  Before being busted at the Peabody Library at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, he had stolen more than a half million dollars' worth of maps.
  
  "Island" is the first book for author Miles Harvey.  In the book, he tries to pull together enough material on the crime and map collecting to create an appealing 350-page book.  He is only partly successful.  I found the material on Bland's crime fascinating.  However, Bland as a subject does not fill the entire 350 pages because his life is dull.  Unfortunately the author inflates incidents and descriptions to pad the text.  I found myself skipping pages to get back to the crime.  There is some interesting stuff about map engraving in the age of discovery and modern mapmaking. But as a true crime book, it over extends itself.  It would be a more interesting book to read if it were shorter and more focused
  