Customer Reviews

Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After watching (alas) the complete television episodes, venturing the book was an experiene on its own. Although the characters are the main focus of both television drama and the book, the latter provides more insight (i.e., the 10 rules, trade insight and various quotes). It provides a good "reality check" to the reader about humans.

I first became interested in this book through the television show, but what an absolute gem to find: funny, in-depth and provides a close look at the human element behind police work that isn't often exlored in today's journalism. Five out of five, definitely one of my top books of all time.

If you like the show you will love the book! It follows Baltimore detectives as they solve crimes and what they go through in their daily lives.

This book is brilliant. As a would-be journalist, I would say "life-altering". Not only is the subject matter compelling, the style is sweet enough to make Ann Rule cry like a little girl. And to think I only bought it to play "Match The Composite" with the series.

Here's a book that gets into the minds of homicide detectives like no other. The author is insightful and thorough, but his writing style is a celebration of brevity. Working within the law and sometimes around it or even in spite of it, the detectives are revealed as all-too-human but praiseworthy individuals. Read this with Randy Sutton's "True Blue : Police Stories by Those Who Have Lived Them" and you'll have the best writing on cops and crime available today.

If you are interested at all in the criminal justice, police, CSI, law enforcement, or legal fields...you MUST read this book!!! I had to read it for a CJA class I took a while back and all I can say is WOW! Simon gets into the minds of the detectives so well, the book almost reads like a fiction novel!!!

This is an excellent book and should be required reading for all Americans!

This is an excellent book! The characters in it are engaging. The dialogue is wonderful. And the situations are both scary and amazing: amazing in how so stupid some people are and how little it takes for someone to kill someone else, scary because it is all true.

In case you weren't aware of that, this book is actually the story of one of Baltimore's homicide units in 1988. Simon went around with the detectives for the entire year and have put their stories down in this book.

At times it is quite sad to read about the brutal atrocities that people are committing against each other. At times it is satisfying to read about the detectives tracking down or lucking in to catching those responsible for the many deaths. But it is always engrossing and fascinating to follow the process and the people involved in one of the uglier jobs possible. This book is a must for any fan of police stories, criminal investigations or anything related to law and order. And in case you further didn't realize it, this book was the basis for the tv show of the same name. It makes the show even scarier to know that not only is it based on real life, but many of the stories from the show are taken straight out of the book. If you were a fan of the show, you will easily recognize many of the exact same cases here in the book. (Or rather vice versa since the book was first.) Easily one of the best books that I've read in a while!

An outstanding piece of journalism from Mr Simon. One of the best books ever. Mind you, I've only read about ten.

Homicide does an amazing job of taking the reader inside the day-to-day operations of the Homicide unit in Baltimore. Reading this book, you gain an appreciation not only for the investigative work done by the detectives, but also for the troubles they encounter. Simon gives you a detailed account of the inner-workings that you cannot learn anywhere else. From the murder to the trial, Homicide shows how the real-world criminal justice system works with all of its flaws. This is a page-turning whodunit in every form, and the best part is that it is true!

I am concerned to see other people claiming that this book does not deserve 5 stars because it does not live up to the characters in the T.V. show and because it has too much vulgarity. If these are the only criticisms (weak ones at that) that one can find within Homicide, then it deserves every star offered.

Read Homicide and you won't be dissapointed.