Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
by David Simon
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Book Summary Information
Author: David SimonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-08-22
ISBN: 0805080759
Number of pages: 672
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Book Reviews of Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
Book Review: This is the one that started it all.
Summary: 5 Stars
Before the acclaimed television series "Homicide - Life on the Street", "The Corner", and, of course, "The Wire", there was this book. Before this book, David Simon was known as a sincerely talented newspaper journalist who specialized in detailed investigative pieces. I was living in Baltimore at the time and I remember being impressed by his easy prose and meticulous attention to detail. Somewhere, somehow, the Baltimore Police Department, to its credit, was convinced to permit this sometimes-thorn-in-their-side to spend a year shadowing one of their homicide units.
You had to wonder how this arrangement was going to work out. Would Simon really have unlimited access? And would he use his inside access to do a deconstruction job on the Department? As it turned out, after the expected false starts and mutual suspicions, a working relationship began and Simon's entry into the genuine world of the homicide detective commenced in earnest. And what a world! Fiction can't touch these guys (and gals). Simon's well-tuned ear picked up all of the bravado, the inappropriate remarks, the WAY-larger-than-life characters, and, when faced with the murder of a child, the heartbreaking tenderness and dedication of the squad.
I read this book long before I discovered amazon.com and started writing reviews but, once in a while, I like to go back to my favourite books and revisit them. This old friend is one of those books and I fondly remember the first reading back in 1992. When I finished it, I turned back to the first page, grabbed a Baltimore map, and started all over again. I no longer live in Baltimore but the story rings as true and fresh as it ever did. And I wonder...where are those homicide detectives today?
Summary of Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
From the creator of HBO's The Wire, the classic book about homicide investigation that became the basis for the hit television show
The scene is Baltimore. Twice every three days another citizen is shot, stabbed, or bludgeoned to death. At the center of this hurricane of crime is the city's homicide unit, a small brotherhood of hard men who fight for whatever justice is possible in a deadly world.
David Simon was the first reporter ever to gain unlimited access to a homicide unit, and this electrifying book tells the true story of a year on the violent streets of an American city. The narrative follows Donald Worden, a veteran investigator; Harry Edgerton, a black detective in a mostly white unit; and Tom Pellegrini, an earnest rookie who takes on the year's most difficult case, the brutal rape and murder of an eleven-year-old girl.
Originally published fifteen years ago, Homicide became the basis for the acclaimed television show of the same name. This new edition--which includes a new introduction, an afterword, and photographs--revives this classic, riveting tale about the men who work on the dark side of the American experience.
This 1992 Edgar Award winner for best fact crime is nothing short of a classic. David Simon, a police reporter for the Baltimore Sun, spent the year 1988 with three homicide squads, accompanying them through all the grim and grisly moments of their work--from first telephone call to final piece of paperwork. The picture that emerges through a masterful accumulation of details is that homicide detectives are a rare breed who seem to thrive on coffee, cigarettes, and persistence, through an endlessly exhausting parade of murder scenes. As the Washington Post writes, "We seem to have an insatiable appetite for police stories.... David Simon's entry is far and away the best, the most readable, the most reliable and relentless of them all.... An eye for the scenes of slaughter and pursuit and an ear for the cadences of cop talk, both business and banter, lend Simon's account the fascination that truth often has."
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