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Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets

by David Simon

4.39 · rating details · 2,939 ratings · 425 reviews

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 i...more

Paperback, 631 pages

Published August 22nd 2006 by Owl Books (first published May 31st 1991)

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Community Reviews

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Mar 10, 2008

Sarah rated it

“The Wire” is over. “The Wire,” which salvaged so many depressing Sunday nights. “The Wire,” which was the only reason we subscribed to HBO. “The Wire,” one of the few television dramas where I’ve repeatedly found myself thinking of all the characters and their situations as real.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels the same way. Fictional or not, Omar got obituaries in publications across the country when his character died a few weeks ago. Whole NFL teams gather together to watc...more“The Wire” is over. “The Wire,” which salvaged so many depressing Sunday nights. “The Wire,” which was the only reason we subscribed to HBO. “The Wire,” one of the few television dramas where I’ve repeatedly found myself thinking of all the characters and their situations as real.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels the same way. Fictional or not, Omar got obituaries in publications across the country when his character died a few weeks ago. Whole NFL teams gather together to watch. And even Barack Obama has mentioned his love for the show on the road several times. What do we do now that it’s over?

I have at least a temporary solution. A few weeks ago, Ben bought Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon, one of the two creators of the show and a former Baltimore Sun journalist. The non-fiction book follows 30 or so Baltimore detectives through a year of cases - starting on New Year’s day in 1988 and ending on New Year’s Eve 1988. When Ben started reading it, it did nothing less than take over his life, and when I started reading it the day he finished it, it took over mine. In the good way.

Reading Homicide is like reading the true story behind the myth of “The Wire.” You meet the real characters who where mixed up and re-pieced together to create Bunk, McNulty, Lester, and Keema. More than that, it offers a back-stage pass into the details of detective work that are only glimpsed during the show - whole chapters are devoted to what it’s like to work in the city morgue and what it’s like for a detective to testify in court. Vocabulary words from “The Wire” that you always wondered about like a “yo” and a “redball” are finally clearly defined.

In short, Homicide makes me better understand why we loved “The Wire” so much: it is truthful and (as much as a television drama can be) it is real. No wonder that the world has taken Omar’s death as if it he once actually lived. No wonder it was heartbreaking to know that Bubbles makes it but Dookie doesn’t.

There weren’t any fireworks at the end of Homicide - some of the biggest murder cases of the year are never solved and none of the hardworking detectives are recognized or even given enough overtime. There also weren’t any big fireworks at the end of “The Wire” - and Homicide helped me understand that that’s how it should be.

So if your schedule is still empty on Sunday nights, or if you start missing the late-night antics of detectives waiting for the phone to ring, don’t worry: there’s still Homicide, and it’s a solid 650 pages long.(less)

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Mar 01, 2009

Mike rated it

· review of another edition

Seeing the re-released edition with the supercool Wire-a-like cover reminded me of how searing this book is. In this age of chatty blog writing it's refreshing to read reportage of this quality. Like Mark Baker's "Cops" but with less shock and more awe. The characters and dialogue ring with a shuddering intensity that would make James Ellroy weep. The French would have term for it; "novel verite"?

After reading it originally in the 90s and looking for all the Homic...more

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Dec 04, 2007

Brendan rated it

Reporter David Simon spends a year inside the Homicide unit of the Baltimore Police Department, observing the "murder police" working in a city which routinely has one the highest murder rates in North America. 234 murders occurred in Baltimore the year Simon wrote the book.

The murder scenes are described in every gory, grisly detail imaginable. Several cases we follow through the course of th ebook, most notably the murder of a grade school girl found in an empty lot nea...more

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Nov 20, 2008

Ed rated it

· review of another edition

Three cheers...I finished David Simon's HOMICIDE last night. Elated I did, too. It's a honker (600+ pages). The storyline tracks a Homicide squad in the Baltimore PD over a year (234 murders in '88). Two main things held my interest. First, I liked the parts on the individual homicide detectives. Their personalities are memorable. Second, I enjoyed the police procedural (CSI) stuff. HOMICIDE is well-written and fast-paced. As expected, lots of male banter (colorful usage of the F-word). It's usu...more

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Aug 18, 2011

Checkman rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: detective, non-fiction, police-procedural, true-crime

Good book. It's held up well over the years. A solid non-fiction account about police investigations. Some of the technology has changed as has some of the procedures, but not that much. Mr. Simon keeps the dramatic embellishments to a minimum and makes an honest attempt to show what real world police work is all about.

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Aug 09, 2010

Chris rated it

Shelves: letters-memoirs-trials, history, crime-related, american-history

Updated Review:

I re-read this because I am going to teach it this fall. In a book about how homicides are investigated, Simon looks at race, class, politics, police, residents, drugs, sexism, racism, and any another ism. There is plently in this book to chew over.

Older Review
I finally read this. I loved the NBC series based on this book. Honestly, if you are debating reading this book, read it. Simon is fair, and his writing is compelling. You get ...more

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Sep 28, 2011

Patrick McCoy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, crime-noir

I was so blown away by the great writing on the HBO TV series The Wire that I felt compelled to track down the book that started it all, Homicide, by the series creator David Simon. Simon spent the entire year of 1988 with a unit of homicide detective units in Baltimore, a very rough and tumble city in the days of the cocaine boom. First of all Simon has a gift for narrative and was able to gain a great understanding of the politics, procedures, and personalities of the subjects of the book so a...moreI was so blown away by the great writing on the HBO TV series The Wire that I felt compelled to track down the book that started it all, Homicide, by the series creator David Simon. Simon spent the entire year of 1988 with a unit of homicide detective units in Baltimore, a very rough and tumble city in the days of the cocaine boom. First of all Simon has a gift for narrative and was able to gain a great understanding of the politics, procedures, and personalities of the subjects of the book so as to make it come alive on the page. He also manages to demystify the process of homicide investigation by showing how it takes place mainly with witnesses and proof like murder weapons rather than fingerprints and DNA. He also shows how the internal politics of an institution like the police department affects the workings of a place like a homicide department. Furthermore, the realities of the justice system are also laid bare. It is a fascinating look at how these institutions work.

Truth is often stranger than fiction, which is proved in this book where he has borrowed several personality types, quotes, stories, and actual events from this book to use in The Wire. For example, the opening sequence of the first season shows McNulty talking with a witness who explains why "Snot Bogie"was shot down: He always stole the pot when the boys were playing dice and they finally got sick of it and shot him. McNulty asks why they let him play if he always took the pot when it got big. And the "yo" (as the detectives call the homeboys) says: "We gotta let him play this is America."

Another great anecdote borrowed from the book was when a detective used a service revolver to kill a mouse at home. He quips, I thought about leaving him out as a warning to the others.

It is a compelling fascinating read that produced the long running TV series Homicide: Life On The Streets as well. I look forward to tracking down his second book, The Corner, and seeing the subsequent HBO miniseries of the same name.(less)

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Sep 11, 2011

Joshua Cejka rated it

I was a huge fan of the show. Huge. From day one i knew that it was finally the 'something different' that a crime story was supposed to have. Gone was the era of the hard - charging, head scratching, whodunnit replaced instead by the brilliant work-a-day grinders in the homicide squad to whom death and mayhem aren't aberrations. They are the norm.

Writers like drama. Perhaps a little too much. Okay. Let me rephrase that. WAY too much. We feel the need to tell a story about every damne...moreI was a huge fan of the show. Huge. From day one i knew that it was finally the 'something different' that a crime story was supposed to have. Gone was the era of the hard - charging, head scratching, whodunnit replaced instead by the brilliant work-a-day grinders in the homicide squad to whom death and mayhem aren't aberrations. They are the norm.

Writers like drama. Perhaps a little too much. Okay. Let me rephrase that. WAY too much. We feel the need to tell a story about every damned little thing with a beginning a middle and an end. But Simon quickly dispensed with the conventional story of the whodunnit and dug much deeper, into the psychology and habits of those who have made a living out of death. If you think of a Hemingway or Fitzgerald short story or novel you know that the plot, such as it is, is frequently insignificant. It's what's going on that you DON'T see that makes the story sing, and resonate. It's the struggle to understand, and not the understanding itself, that makes it work. Simons book does this.

I knew it was different when i was actually laughing on the first page as two detectives stand over the body of a man with a hole in his head and the lead cracks a joke about how it could be fixed with a tire repair kit. Laughter. But then you say to yourself "why am i laughing? This is supposed to be serious. This guy has been MURDERED." Which got me thinking about how i generally hate the mundanity of my job. How everybody thinks it's a slog at times. And then you meet these detectives. It's a job. It may also be a calling and a passion, but it's a job too. And it's almost guaranteed that they would have a different honest reaction to sudden, violent death, suspects, etc than what we see on our favorite detective shows.

Simon went on to have a helluva career and i don't think it's beyond the pale to suggest that his style and means of storytelling may end up being one of the most influential of our generation. By simply pulling us back from the traditional ghastly whodunit or expose on the sin, the crime, the criminals and allowing us to look dispassionately at the fact of crime we are able to see much more clearly into the immediate, dangerous, but almost banal heart of things. Other crime writers might bring us a old chestnut war between absolute good and absolute evil but Simon brings us to the notion of the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time and the idea that not all crimes are committed by nefarious masterminds, but usually just by dumb slobs reacting poorly to dumb situations. And sometimes the intrepid detectives who solve these horrendous acts are just people, doing a job like the rest of us do - with humor, panache, grit, style and creativity. (less)

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Jul 27, 2011

Nichole rated it

I really enjoyed this book. The writing is superb. David Simon knows how to tell a story. He knows how to tell a story with depth and humor and an eye for understanding relationships between people and places and systems. I'm sure that I'm not saying anything that someone else hasn't said before, but after reading this book, I feel like I understand where The Wire came from a little more clearly.
I've only given it three stars, even though I really enjoyed it, because I don't think tha...moreI really enjoyed this book. The writing is superb. David Simon knows how to tell a story. He knows how to tell a story with depth and humor and an eye for understanding relationships between people and places and systems. I'm sure that I'm not saying anything that someone else hasn't said before, but after reading this book, I feel like I understand where The Wire came from a little more clearly.
I've only given it three stars, even though I really enjoyed it, because I don't think that I would have made it through the book if I hadn't already watched The Wire. Half of my enjoyment came from figuring out which detectives in the book related to which characters in The Wire and getting a deeper understanding of some of the things that I saw on the show. I also really enjoyed the detailed description of police work, of the judicial system, of the morgue (excuse me, medical examiner's office), of the tension within in each squad, and the history of the police department itself. I'm not sure that these things would have held my interest for all 600 pages if I didn't already have the framework of The Wire in my brain.
Additionally, I really enjoyed the afterword(s) written by Simon, where he breaks down the things that happened after the book was written, and how the show Homicide, the book The Corner, and the HBO series that spun off from that book affected not only his career, but his relationships with the detectives that he spent that year with. For an aficionado of The Wire this book feeds the void left by such an intelligent show. I'd get into nearly anything that had ties to it, and this book did not disappoint me. However, if you don't like true crime and/or you aren't a devoted fan of The Wire, it might be hard to get through. Parts of it are very disturbing. If you aren't interested in reading true stories about our fucked up sense of justice and the bureaucracy of our police department, and you don't want to hear about the insane shit that people do to each other, don't bother picking up this book. It's not a light read. It is intense, but well told. I've only given it three stars because, as Simon points out himself, I think it's a niche read and at 600 pages it's a challenge to get through. Still, I think Simon's done it superbly. I can't imagine looking at a year's worth of notes and trying to create a narrative from it. (less)

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Jun 18, 2011

Mario rated it

This softcover, printed with paperback sized type, comes in at 622 pages (not counting the afterward), and though I enjoyed just about every page of the book, towards the end I was looking forward to finishing it and getting onto something else. Still, it's a year long account from a reporter embedded with the Baltimore homicide detectives, and had the author written any less, it would have cheated the reader out of the story.

I picked up this book because of the HBO show, The Wire, who...more

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Jan 24, 2011

Jayson rated it

Shelves: 11th-grade-advisory

The novel Homicide is about a scene in Baltimore in which some kind of murder would happen every few days. The homicide unit was a brotherhood and this story delves deep within the topic and the whole process of a homicide. The story takes you deep into the lives of these people and how it was. The characters create for a very interesting story and a story that develops for something very interesting.

I has personally liked the book because these topics catch my attention and the sus...more

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Dec 26, 2010

Amin rated it

Shelves: culture, history, law

As is now well known, David Simon is the creator of The Wire, and Homicide provides much of the raw material for the show's immediacy and realism. But it is, as a work, different. The Wire is angry, angry about institutions that Simon feels have failed the individuals they are supposed to serve. Homicide is also angry about institutional failure and malaise, but it is less about those failures, and more about the kind of person that becomes a homicide detective in Baltimore, and what it really...more

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Nov 02, 2010

Adam Snider rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 31, 2009

Todd rated it

Shelves: kindle

(I will start with a complaint: Terry Gross gushes over anything even vaguely related to David Simon -- a search of Fresh Air's show descriptions returns 66 results for a search on his name. Meanwhile, she hasn't done a single story on Battlestar Galactica. Don't forget about middlebrow science fiction, Terry!)

In this book David Simon chronicles the events of a Baltimore homicide detective squad during the year 1988. The book begins on Jan 1 and ends on Dec 31. In between there are 2...more(I will start with a complaint: Terry Gross gushes over anything even vaguely related to David Simon -- a search of Fresh Air's show descriptions returns 66 results for a search on his name. Meanwhile, she hasn't done a single story on Battlestar Galactica. Don't forget about middlebrow science fiction, Terry!)

In this book David Simon chronicles the events of a Baltimore homicide detective squad during the year 1988. The book begins on Jan 1 and ends on Dec 31. In between there are 234 murders. As if that's not enough to keep them busy, they also have to investigate suicides, unattended deaths, police-related shootings, and the occasional political hot potato.

This is a dark, dark book, which means it will be funny to the less delicate among us. (We know who we are.) The description of the Christmas decorations in the homicide offices left me shaking with laughter. Some of it is decidedly unfunny to the detectives, like the murder of children and "taxpayers," as contributors to society are called. But everything else is fair game.

Some cases are "red balls," which means they have the maximum amount of attention from the supervisors and the press. Throughout the book one detective becomes obsessed with a red ball. It's interesting to watch the effect on him. He works 18 hour days for a month, his health deteriorates, he starts to burn out, he obsessively pursues any clue no matter how small. All for about $35k a year plus overtime.

There are a lot of characters to follow, but they are all described in such detail that they are easy to keep track of. You get a good sense of the squad room and what goes on at multiple crime scenes. Lengthy passages take place in other areas important to the detectives' jobs -- the morgue, the courthouse, emergency rooms. Toward the end of the book we visit the pauper's cemetery and find no comfort or meaning.

The Kindle edition has a very interesting section at the end that describes how the book was received, the making of it into a TV show, and a little bit about The Wire. (I haven't seen either.)

This book is slightly overwritten but still highly recommended. Before you start reading it clear out your schedule because you won't want to do anything else but click on the Next Page button for the next 48 hours.(less)

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Apr 07, 2011

Peter Knox rated it

Shelves: non-fiction

Most people know David Simon from The Wire (basically the reason you got HBO), but he's also to thank for Treme, The Corner, Generation Kill, and this book that sparked the TV series of the same name.

David Simon had unprecedented access to the Baltimore Homicide Department and followed them around for all of 1988, to then spend the next two years twisting that experience into this book. And this book has it all: rape, murder, courtroom drama, corrupt politicians, conspiracy, investi...more

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Sep 04, 2010

F.R. rated it

· review of another edition

Believe the hype – this is a truly excellent book! An in-depth examination of one year in the life of the Baltimore Homicide department. Undoubtedly it’s gritty and earthy and contains many gruesome moments, but it’s also a very human book with the key detectives brought to life as the reader is made to understand the bizarre world they inhabit. It’s a place where death is serious but is (nearly always) a joke, where despite these men (and they are pretty much all men) having compassion it’s a d...more

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Jul 08, 2011

Joe rated it

What's both enjoyable and maddening about a book like this is that it is real - real people, real crimes. It's an interesting view into a world and culture I know little about, that of police and inner city crime. What's maddening is the reality -- that not all things are solved, wrapped up, concluded. You want the little girl case to have an answer. You want the hard work to provide closure. But reality is not like that.

It's really interesting reading this book now, having watc...more

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Mar 20, 2010

Hazel rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

I haven't read much true crime, but I think this is exceptional journalistic writing. In this big book on a Baltimore homicide unit, Simon gives us an insight into the science and technique of detection, the criminal justice system, the politics of the related institutions, the personalities of the detectives and the social conditions which brought victims together with killers in 1988. He's done a good job. I understand why it won an Edgar.

Here is the opening of Chapter 7.

Sum

...more

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Dec 02, 2011

UChicagoLaw added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-faculty-recommendations, faculty-recommendations

"Simon spent a year embedded with the homicide division of the Baltimore Police Department, following a squad of detectives as they dealt with cases both mundane and bizarre. The book is fascinating in large part because it describes the often conflicting forces that pull on police detectives as they go about their jobs. Their superiors within the police department demand that cases be “cleared,” meaning that the police have decided who has committed a murder regardless of whether that pers...more

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Aug 12, 2009

Steve rated it

If you are a fan of the TV show the Wire, you should read this book. David Simon started making the transition from Baltimore Sun beat reporter to creator of the greatest TV show ever made (IMO) by taking a year off and writing this book about a year in the life of the Baltimore city homicide department. This book covers 1988 so it is before the crack epidemic took over the city and turned it into the Baltimore you know from The Wire, but they still had close to 300 murders and a lot of traged...more

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Nov 11, 2011

Jeff rated it

David Simon's Homicide is a classic - a sprawling, uncompromising work that incorporates a huge amount of digression and detail, but never loses sight of a strong central narrative that doesn't waver. We get the warts and what have you, but we also get a portrait of an inner-city homicide department that rings much too true to be fictional. Many of the individual cases described are grim and depressing in their brutality and excessive cruelty, but at the heart of this story are a group of tale...more

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Nov 08, 2008

Adam rated it

This is an astonishingly thorough, evocative, and accurate piece of journalism. The book intimately relates, at root, what the real lives of homicide detectives are like -- it totally changed the way I look at crime and the systems we create to control it. Enough platitudes for you? It's a good book. (Fans of "The Wire" will especially enjoy this, which is fitting, as it's written by the creator of the series.)

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Dec 29, 2008

Kim rated it

I loved The Wire as much as the next guy, but though this book is awesome, it's a bit of a let down after that.

As a piece of journalism, it's incredible. There aren't many reporters who could get this kind of access to a bunch of miserable homicide cops (Simon seems to have spent every waking moment with them for a year), but there's even fewer, who, having bonded with the detectives, could burn so many of them so badly in print. There's a lot of potentially career-ending stuff in th...more

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Oct 01, 2011

Pparskey rated it

This book was recommended to me by a Los Angeles Police Detective. I happened to sit next to him at a wedding reception and we began to discuss police dramas on TV and which, in his estimation, were the most realistic. He indicated that "The Wire" was among the best cop shows on TV (it was on HBO for five seasons) and that "Homicide" was the basis for the show.

The book is a year long view of the lives of detectives with the Baltimore Police Department. It provide...more

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Dec 15, 2010

Gerald Sinstadt rated it

Shelves: non-fiction-general

From January 1st to December 31st 1988, David Simon - then a reporter on The Baltimore Sun - was granted the nominal status of 'police intern' and allowed to follow the men of the city's Homicide Unit on their grisly daily round. At first the detectives viewed him with suspicion; gradually this turned to reluctant acceptance; it ended in largely concealed admiration. The bare fact of survival is remarkable in itself, but it is overshadowed by the towering achievement of the book it generated.
...more

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Jan 20, 2009

Andrew Thompson rated it

· review of another edition

This is a compelling book which provides a fascinating insight into the world of the homicide detective in the city of Baltimore. The cases, the departmental politics and the dark, deadpan humour of the detectives are all shown unsparingly. Simon makes the detectives come alive on the page and paints a vivid picture of the psyche required to deal with murder and its attendant lies, autopsies and the parts of the human experience that, thankfully, few of us has to deal with.

It's fasc...more

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Jul 05, 2011

Ryan rated it

· review of another edition

As any fan of The Wire knows, David Simon, who wrote the crime beat for the Baltimore Sun, took a year off to follow the Baltimore Homicide Department for an entire year, then took a year or two off to write this book. Just like The Wire, this is an incredible look at the life, struggle, political conflict, and emotional challenges of homicide detectives pursuing the worst people and the worst crime scenes imaginable: killers, child killers, drug murderers, shotgun suicides, rape/murders, contra...moreAs any fan of The Wire knows, David Simon, who wrote the crime beat for the Baltimore Sun, took a year off to follow the Baltimore Homicide Department for an entire year, then took a year or two off to write this book. Just like The Wire, this is an incredible look at the life, struggle, political conflict, and emotional challenges of homicide detectives pursuing the worst people and the worst crime scenes imaginable: killers, child killers, drug murderers, shotgun suicides, rape/murders, contract killers, stabbings, double murders, cops taking two bullets to the head, and the list goes on.

I thought the way this book was written was absolutely phenomenal, combining the journalistic integrity of names, facts, dates, but incorporated all 280ish cases in a seemingly fluent manner, taking 10 pages or so with each major case, giving the reader the setup, the crime scene, the detective covering the case and his background, the discovery of evidence, interrogation, sometimes resolving the case within the 10 page section and sometimes coming back to the case later on as things develop further. There are a couple of cases that remain open for a couple of months to which Simon returns and continues to develop, even when a case may remain open at the end of the year he spent with them.

I really enjoyed the way that each chapter opened with a 10-15 page section expounding on a certain element of the detective's experience before diving into certain cases - one section detailing the mastery of an interrogation, giving the suspect his rights and then simultaneously trying to manipulate the suspect into speaking; a section about the autopsy room and detaching oneself enough to objectively view the proceedings; the political implications of rank, who supports who, who is being forced out, who is under the gun, how from the mayor down there is pressure to show progress in the numbers, pressure to kiss ass to your superiors and allow the men under you to work; one section depicts the seeming insanity that arises during the summer months, where murders occur for no reason other than heat-induced temper-shortening.

My favorite technique Simon displays is his ability to shape the book -- a continuous, year-long look at what each day brings, case after case, yet continuing to look back on open cases, despite the fact that cases were obviously open before Jan 1 and some remain open after Dec 31 -- in relative terms like a narrative with resolution. He phrases the conflict in the beginning of the murder clearance rate, and continues to return to this idea as detectives fight to lower it; a massive Red-Ball case from February is returned to time and time again as it develops over the course of the year, building to a climax; a case involving a cop who was shot twice in the face is spread throughout the entire story, starting with the crime itself, depicting the search for witnesses and the building of the case, and finally showing us the courtroom prosecution. Simon seems to set his story up in a way that mirrors the criminal process, with more initial crime scenes in the beginning, more developments and investigations in the middle, and more resolution (be it trial, abandonment, or a plea) toward the end -- despite the obviously continuing nature of the department throughout the winter months.

It is definitely a large read, but after completing it I feel I have watched the entire Wire series over again in more detail. It is clearly different from the series in that there are no huge case-building, eavesdropping, special unit cases, and the characters from the series are not exactly recognizable (though there are pieces of each seen in some of the 15 that Simon followed), but the subject matter, the detail, the insight he reveals to the process is interesting, profound, and enlightening.(less)

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Apr 12, 2010

Neven rated it

If you’re a fan of The Wire - the greatest show on TV - and you’re jonesing for more of that multilayered urban poetry, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of David Simon’s 1991 narrative nonfiction classic which launched the (lesser) namesake show and The Wire itself. The real stories are here, the real Jay Landsman, McNulty, The Bunk. Snot Boogie, even.

Even if you haven’t seen The Wire - and what are you waiting for - you shouldn’t skip this. It’s easily the best book I’ve rea...more

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Oct 06, 2009

Noel rated it

A great book, journalist David Simon spends a year with the Baltimore Homicide unit and writes from the inside out about a city and it's impulsive, calculated and downright deranged inhabitants. Whether it's drug dealers, domestic violence or dope fiends on the make this book has it all. A Year on the Killing Streets....the subtitle says it all,there aint no respite from the streets for the reader or detectives.It's superbly written and the main homicide detectives come to life as the cases deve...more

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Oct 17, 2009

Andy rated it

Shelves: nonfiction, gritty, violent

A pretty awesome behind-the-scenes look at the life of the Baltimore homicide department in 1988, written by a journalist who embedded himself in one of its divisions for that entire year. It was the antecedent of two major TV shows, "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "The Wire," and it's easy to see, upon reading it, why network executives thought it would be great television material. Body after body hits the streets, detectives are summoned, they try to piece things togeth...more

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About David Simon

David Simon is a journalist and writer best known for his nonfiction book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and its television dramatization Homicide: Life on the Street, which David Simon also produced and wrote for.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

More about David Simon...

Books by David Simon

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“For a detective or street police, the only real satisfaction is the work itself; when a cop spends more and more time getting aggravated with the details, he's finished. The attitude of co-workers, the indifference of superiors, the poor quality of the equipment - all of it pales if you still love the job; all of it matters if you don't.” — 4 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18956.Homicide?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317793065m/18956.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18956.Homicide?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon[/url]

Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets

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