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Reviews
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
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." From Kirkus Reviews , April 15, 1991
An incomparable, epic nonfiction police procedural, covering one year with a Baltimore homicide squad--and a dizzying circus of mayhem and stark horror at vast length. Simon, a police reporter for the Baltimore Sun, spent 1988 as a fly on the wall with Baltimore's homicide unit. Here, he tells what it was like to investigate dozens of Baltimore's 234 murders that year. We follow three homicide squads from first alert by phone to arrival at the body, through first investigation of the crime scene, questioning of witnesses, and writing up reports back at the police department. Subjectively, however, we are right ... read more Book Description
Edgar and Anthony Award Winner Selected by the Literary Guild "Remarkable...A true crime classic." ASSOCIATED PRESS Enter the workday of real policemen. Follow fifteen detectives, three sergeants, and a lieutenant, whose job it is to investigate Baltimore's 234 murders. You will get a cop's-eye-view of the bureaucracy, the highs of success, the moments of despair, and the non-stop rush of pursuits, anger, banter, and violence that make up a cop's life. Now an acclaimed television series, this extraordinary book is the insider's look at what you have always wondered about. Synopsis
"Remarkable . . . a true crime classic . . . a journalistic masterpiece. . . . (A) saga of a brutal, bloody, bewildering year in the Baltimore Police Department's homicide unit. . . . This is interior reporting at its finest".--"Associated Press". An Edgar Award winner and the basis for the popular television series of the same title.
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Customer Reviews
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Best non-fiction book I ever read
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Reviewer:
igsun@hotmail.com
from Tallahassee, Florida
November 3, 1999
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A incredibly touching, informative, funny story of a squad of 8 homicide detectives and what they encounter on their jobs on a daily basis. Read this book. And "The Onion Field" also.
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an absolute masterpiece
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Reviewer:
A reader
from Arlington, VA
August 13, 1999
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This is one of the most engrossing books I've ever read, more exciting and interesting than most novels. Also greatly enhances one's understanding of the fantastic TV series that grew out of this book. (I read the book after becoming a fan of the show). At the same time, it is somewhat depressing to have many illusions about the criminal justice system shattered. Specifically, it is scary to be told just how erraticaly juries can behave, and to learn how few murderers are actually caught and brought to justice.
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Reality beats fiction all to hell.
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Reviewer:
emw3777@aol.com
from Independence, MO
July 29, 1999
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Simon's Homicide takes the reader where few would dare to tread on a daily basis--into the bleak reality of murder and moral mayhem. Here is a panoramic view of the dark side of human nature and it delivers in ways that fiction could never aspire. There are sterling moments of insight, pathos, black comedy, and outrage in this volume written by a man who decided it was time to "stop" his investigation when his own objectivity became at risk; it's one thing to record and observe what's going on and quite another to become even marginally involved. After reading this you'll never think the same about walking down a street at night, missing people, or the workings of the human mind.
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1 people found this review helpful.
0 did not.
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One of my favorites!!!!
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Reviewer:
A reader
from Naples, Italy
July 25, 1999
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I got the book on tape version because I love the TV series. Not only is the text interesting, but Reed Diamond's narration of it makes it the best book on tape I have ever listened to. The way he uses language to bring the book alive, it even beats the television series!
--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
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