Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
Selected Book Details
- Paperback
- Author: David Simon
- Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
- Release Date: August 2006
- ISBN-10: 0805080759
- ISBN-13: 9780805080759
- List Price: $19.00
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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryThis 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." |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Been there and done it
Rating: 
I was very familar with this book as I am a former member of the Baltimore homicide unit. I did not have a chance in the past to read it, but now that I am retired I read it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I know most of the homicide members that are mentioned in the unit and some of them worked in my squad when I was there. It certainly depicts what goes on daily in the Baltimore homicide unit.
Interesting Plot, author has difficulty presenting it
Rating:
The author develops this plot so slowly that I'm amazed he is a journalist by profession. Perhaps that's a refelction of why journalism today is so lousy. I found the development of the plot and the writing of the book so cumbersome that I've put it down and read other books three times.... Oh I'll finish it on some night when I've read and reread all other books in the house....
I'm a satisfied customer
Rating:
Thanks for sending my book in a timely matter. I will order from this person again.
Breathtaking, and quite seriously: the real deal.
Rating:
May I also recommend: Soothing Music for Stray Cats by Jayne Joso, a London novel; and The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood by David Simon
A massive credit to the writer for the complexity and depth of this novel because it's nail biting stuff. Sheer literary brilliance. The social and criminal scope of this book is breathtaking, showing what is happening in American society at a truly profound level.
Amazingly Well-written Account!
Rating:
I came upon this book after finishing The Wire, and like many others, I was so thoroughly impressed with that series that I wanted more...and I am happy to say I was not disappointed in the least with this book. Simon writes brilliantly and frank. Though many of the cases in the book range from compelling to heartbreaking, to hilarious and sometimes just plain unbelievable, they truly aren't what really makes this piece astounding. It's the character with which these men handle the calls and the amount of work they put in, even when there isn't necessarily a light at the end of the tunnel. I never pictured myself becoming engrossed in a 600 page homicide book, but this stands as a testament to how much life Simon gives the individuals who selflessly spend countless hours doing the impossible job of investigating wrongful deaths in a city where murder is seemingly a common occurrence. His work is so comprehensive, in fact, that I feel no journalist/writer need bother with the topic again.
Just like McLarney says in the epilogue, "It's not about the cases. The murders. I mean, you'll write about the murders so you have stuff to write about. But that's all just the [b.s.]...you're gonna write about us. About the guys. About how we act and the [stuff] we say to each other, about how pissed off we get and how funny we are sometimes and the [stuff] that goes on in the office." And you know what? He's right, and it's why this book will continue to marvel readers for generations.
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