Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon

As you might remember, I read David Simon's The Corner (which was about a year in a drug infested inner city neighborhood in Baltimore), a few months ago. It was such a good book, I figured I'd go back and read his earlier work, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. I wasn't disappointed. After all, these are the two books that spawned HBO's The Wire. This book was also the inspiration for NBC's hit show, Homicide: Life on the Street.

David Simon (a veteran police reporter for the Baltimore Sun at the time) embedded himself with the Baltimore Police Department's homicide unit from January 1, 1988 through December 31, 1988. For all intents and purposes, he was a homicide cop for the year (though he never tried to act like one...he wanted to blend into the background and that meant dressing and acting like a homicide detective). He attended crime scences, visited the morgue, and participated in a legal exhumation of a body. He was there for search and seizures, interrogations, court hearings and trials, prosecutor's offices, you name it.

The book is so well written that at times it feels like you're reading fiction. The problem is, none of it is fiction. People commit murders every day across this country. Homicide cops have to mentally distance themselves from the crimes in order to cope and do their jobs. They make distinctions between victims (also called taxpayers) and derelicts, dealers, and others who they don't think make a contribution to society.

The life of a homicide detective is rough. Again, all that evil you see on a daily basis, horrific office politics (which is often real politics), incredibly long hours, and incredible stress from dealing with deadbeats all day. This leads to a lot of alcohol abuse among the detectives and a lot of neglected families at home. And if you don't fall in with the unwritten work rules of the homicide department, you'll be hazed mercilessly until you conform or transfer out.

Simon gives us a very honest book. While sympathetic to the detectives, he shows us their flaws (family problems, alcohol abuse, some racism, other things) as well. He also tries to give the "other" side a fair shake as well.

My only problem with the book is that there were so many people involved in the story. Even though each detective was incredibly well fleshed out, it was hard to remember who had a young child at home, who was divorced, who was a sergeant, etc. But this is a minor complaint.

Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets is an extremely compelling read. Even though it rings in at a weighty 600 pages, they seem to fly by. Great writing by a great journalist on what is unfortunately a timeless topic.