Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets(Canons)

'A masterpiece' MARTIN AMIS '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.

About the Author :
David Simon is an author, journalist, producer and script writer and is best known as the creator of HBO's Peabody Award-winning series The Wire. His first book, the international bestseller Homicide, won the Edgar Award and the Anthony Award and became the basis for the NBC award-winning drama. His 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 also co-created the HBO series Generation Kill with Ed Burns, and Treme with Eric Overmyer. He lives in Baltimore.

Review :
* 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 * A hard-nosed classic of modern crime reportage. GQ * The true genius of [his] work is its scope ... Homicide moves beyond individual victims to tell the stories of those touched by their deaths. By staring deep into the eyes of the departed, Simon reveals the mysteries of the living. Sunday Times * The real delight is the discovery of Simon's perfect ear for dialogue; his masterful construction and pacing; and his empathy for his occasionally brutal but nevertheless inspirational subjects. Observer * This brilliant book ... [is] desolate, sharp, poetic and passionate ... Simon alternates between black humour and moments of bleakness, and the restlessness of the violence that lies underneath it all. Financial Times * A staggering work that is almost impossible to put down ... a gripping depiction of America's culture of violence ... Simon conjures up his subjects' individual personalities in three-dimensional detail. The detectives leap off these pages ... A raw, revelatory and utterly real account of life and death in Baltimore. Metro * A remarkable psychological and personal picture of 18 men labouring under immense pressure in traumatic circumstances ... it is not just a majestic piece of reporting, it demonstrates Simon's instinctive ability to identify how the political and psychological interact ... It reads like a thriller as he takes you through the desperate world of inner city West and East Baltimore, slaying by slaying. Daily Telegraph * Homicide is as intense a work of observation as you're likely ever to find, studded with Simon's caustic, wry and suspicious personality, as well as the ability to portray people as they truly are, usually a complicated shade of gray. Herald * Brushes away the accretions of myth to reveal the banality of crime ... it's a sober, unsurprised account of the desperately sad lives of people who commit most crimes and a quiet testimonial to the people who clear up the mess. Word Magazine * David Simon has single handedly raised the bar for writing about crime, crime-fighting and the messy and imprecise business of justice to new and nearly unreachable levels. Like the WIRE, which was easily the finest dramatic series in the history of television, a work of tremendous ambition which made everything in the genre to follow irrelevent. -- Tony Bourdain * The best book about homicide detectives by an American writer. -- Norman Mailer * Simon does an extraordinary job of getting under the skin and into the minds of the police officers. New York Times Book Review * Remarkable ... A True Crime Classic ... a journalistic masterpiece of a brutal, bloody, bewildering year in the Baltimore Police Department's homicide unit. Associated Press * reporter who keeps his wits about him ... A very good book. The New Yorker * Simon has captured the poetry of the meanest streets. Los Angeles Times * Certainly one of the most engrossing police procedural mystery books ever written, not only because the crimes and plots and personalities are real, but because Simon is a terrific writer who has mastered the necessities and nuances of his material. Newsday * The world of urban violence has never been so well portrayed, nor has the day-to-day craft of the detective. Chicago Tribune * Virtually ignored by TV schedulers and audiences in the UK, David Simon's uncompromising crime drama 'The Wire' has fan a devoted fan base on DVD in September. At the same time Canongate bring us a new UK edition of the book that started it all, David Simon's True Crime classic HOMICIDE. Unavailable for 15 years and a great read in its own right, he follows Baltimore's homicide department over the course of a year. This new 'Wire'-inspired jacket is sure to appeal to fans. Bookseller * Simon followed a group of Baltimore detectives through a year on the mean streets. The resulting book is a hefty volume, giving Simon cope for a huge amount of detail and it's this, I think, that makes it such compulsive reading. How the detectives work - the crime they dace, the casual murders, the hopeless lives - all seen through Simon's eyes and those of the detectives he follows so closely. Homicide became the inspiration behind the TV series The Wire, which I've not seen, but who needs fiction when factual writing is as good as this? Publishing News * Homicide is a beautifully-written, almost poetic observation of a desperately harrowing subject and Simon deserves the highest praise for going to the darkest places of the underbelly of the American dream and coming out with a gripping account of what it is like to live and work there. -- Peter Whittaker Tribune * An extraordinary book. -- Vera Rule Guardian