Homicide by David Simon Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Homicide
Book Review: Excellent book
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent book and should be required reading for all Americans!Book Review: Fantastic
Summary: 5 Stars
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.Book Review: Fierce
Summary: 5 Stars
'Homicide' sweats reality from every pore. It's a masterful account of a year in the life of the Baltimore homicide division, and is packed with enough policework to fuel a dozen films and television series. It's never sensationalist, and throughout the course of the year we get to know the people who spend their lives running around in the dark - lots of little images stick with you, like the officers who go to crime scenes with 'Theme from Shaft' blaring on a portable cassette deck, or the frazzled officers who shout at corpses in a forlorn attempt to gain information from them, or the sweat-sodden shirts of the furnace-like night shift. Some crimes are solved, some crimes are not, and at the end you start to wonder why the policemen do the job they do, given that it entails lifting rotting bodies, and involves constant exposure to the worst things in the world without much financial recompense. You wonder why they don't just throw up their hands and give up - if the injustice doesn't get you, the office politics will. It gives a very good impression of the mind-numbing repetition of the job, without being at all boring. Throughout, Baltimore comes across as the futuristic Detroit from 'Robocop', and one can only imagine what a similar book set in Los Angeles would be like. Simon followed this up with 'The Corner', which trod a similar path but without being focused on the police.Book Review: First Rate Journalism
Summary: 5 Stars
I've always felt that the main problem with the TV show version of "Homicide" is that, good as it is, it just can't match the gritty realism of the book it is based on. Journalist David Simon spent a year as a fly on the wall observing the Balitimore Police Homicide Unit, and dutifully recording everything he saw by and large without editorial comment. The result is absolutely indespensible for anyone with an interest in law enforcement. Being a homicide detectives is a tough job both emotionally and professionally with many hours of tedium that can often result in the frustration of an unsolved case. Particularly poignant is the story of a unsolved child murder case that haunts one of the detectives to the point of endagering his mental well being. The value of this book to the nation's hard working law enforcement professionals simply cannot be understated.Book Review: For fans of the TV show and crime buff everywhere
Summary: 5 Stars
David Simon has written a compelling novel that shows you how homicide detectives deal with the horrors they see every day. If you loved the TV show, this is must-read and tells the true story of the Baltimore PD homicide unit.