Description

‘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.

Publisher 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 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 . . . a work of tremendous ambition which made everything in the genre to follow irrelevant -- ANTHONY BOURDAIN True genius * * Sunday Times * * A hard-nosed classic * * GQ * * An extraordinary book * * Guardian * * Brilliant . . . desolate, sharp, poetic and passionate * * Financial Times * * The best book about homicide detectives by an American writer -- NORMAN MAILER 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 * * 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 * * Simon does an extraordinary job of getting under the skin and into the minds of the police officers * * New York Times Book Review * *