This is one of the best things i have read all year, and i can’t recommend it enough. A young Baltimore Sun journalist named David Simon spent a whole year with the homicide unit, to find out what happens, and this book is the result.
You might – should- know David Simon as the man who created ‘The Wire‘, regarded by many as one of the best television shows ever. If your idea of great TV is some ‘reality’ show, then there’s no point you reading any further, there is no hope for you. Everyone else, if you are a Wire fan, you need to read this book.
This is a ‘true crime’ book, although it reads more like a especally detailed thriller. You learn everything about the Homicide department, from the office politics, personal histories, how different officers approach their murder scenes, the rather bleak humour employed as a coping mechanism, everything. This could make for a pretty dull book if Simon wasn’t such a great writer, and he is. And you need to go and buy this now.
What? Why Bother? 