Homicide
by David Simon

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Book Reviews of Homicide

Book Review: Chilling and dramatic
Summary: 4 Stars

This book covers the city of Baltimore, which is about an hour's drive from where I live. It describes the dark underbelly of the city, something most of us thankfully never see. When I go to Baltimore, I see a living, functioning city. From this book I learned that there a whole dimention to the city that I, again thankfully, know nothing about. I find it in a way shocking that the horrible crimes that Simon describes take place not in some far-off location, but basically in my own backyard, involving people I could possible bump into on the street. I do not generally suspect the worst about people, so to read about the things people are capable of doing to each other, in my own country, in my own state, is mind-blowing. On a larger scale, Simon is describing people's inhumanity toward each other, people doing things to each other that I never thought someone could be capable of--men raping two-year-olds, eviserating 11-year-olds, killing each other over $20 or an article of clothing. What is wrong with these people, I kept asking myself. Truth is truly stranger than fiction. If these events were not true, nobody would believe them. And what shines through clearly in Simon's narrative is that these detectives, overworked and underpaid, are capable of living with this kind of evil on a daily basis and still function, still solve crimes, still hold people accountable for their actions. Sure they have their coping mechanisms and warped view of the world, but they manage to do what we, the public, ask them to do, and do it well.

This books stops short of five stars for a few reasons. First, subjectively, the real detectives in the book did not live up to the detectives in the TV show. They were less likable, some even first-rate jerks. They flaunt their positions as police detectives, they make raw jokes, racist comments, are sexist and homophobic, acting in ways unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, if there is such a thing in urban police departments. Their actions, while faithfully described by the author, are a little hard to take at times. Second, the vulgarity got old after a while. Simon's goal of realism could still have been achieved without directly quoting every swear word that came out of someone's mouth.

In all, though, the year that Simon covers goes by very quickly and at the end of the book, as old cases carry over into the next year and new cases crop up, he leaves you wanting the stories to go on. He admits in his note at the back of the book that a calendar year is an arbitrary mark when it comes to homicides. They just keep coming.

Summary of Homicide

Murder & Mayhem Books

• Subjects > Biographies & Memoirs > True Accounts > Murder & Mayhem
• Travel > United States > States > Maryland
• Crime & Criminals  > Criminology