David Simon was the first investigative journalist to gain unlimited access to a homicide department and in this book brings us a fascinating and insighful piece of true crime writing. His success as producer and writer of the immensely popular television programme The Wire is obviously due to the first hand knowledge he has had following the cops, the criminals, the addicts and the families caught up in a war that seems to be impossible to bring to an end. Totally gripping stuff.
'The best book about homicide detectives by an American writer' NORMAN MAILER
Based on a year on the killing streets of Baltimore, David Simon's true crime masterpiece reveals a city few will ever experience. Day in day out citizens are shot, stabbed, or bludgeoned to death. At the centre of this hurricane of crime is the city's homicide unit, a small brotherhood of men who fight for whatever justice is possible in a deadly world.
'Homicide flows with the episodic drive of the best fiction, but Simon is too good a reporter to miss the real stories. ... Simon's genius is that through his cops he tells the victims' story. The picture is overpowering. ... Homicide is a 'non-fiction' to rank with Mailer's Executioner's Song or Capote's In Cold Blood, dissecting an entire failed city, and shining a light on the shadows haunting an entire country.' Michael Carson, Spectator
'An amazing piece of dramatic reportage...the access Simon enjoyed is incredible and he records everything he sees with vivid brilliance. He doesn't miss a thing and his descriptive prose brings to extraordinary life every rank squadroom, street corner and murder scene he is scrupulous witness to.' Allan Jones, Uncut
'A masterpiece...[Simon] has exceptional literary gifts of eye and ear. Few novelists have written so well about the corrosiveness of the modern American city.' Martin Amis
'The world of urban violence has never been so well portrayed, nor has the day-to-day craft of the detective.' Chicago Tribune
Author
About David Simon
David Simon's Homicide won the Edgar and Anthony awards and became the basis for the NBC award-winng drama. Simon's second book, The Corner: A Year in the Life of An Inner-City Neighbourhood, co-authored with Edward Burns, was made into an Emmy-winning HBO miniseries. Simon is currently an executive producer and writer for HBO's Peabody Award-winning series THE WIRE. He lives in Baltimore.
