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A police reporter for the Baltimore Sun decides to take a year off to follow the Baltimore homicide unit around for a year to get insight into what a homicide detective’s job entails.

The author takes you through the day to day job and what happens on a job of a homicide detective. There is the getting the call for the murder and the calls come in at random times. Murder doesn’t have a schedule and a detective has to be ready at any moment. Once the call comes in‚ they have to drive to the murder scene to collect all the evidence. Then the detective has to go out and find all the witnesses and potential leads to help solve the murder. if he has enough evidence to bring it to trial‚ he has to help the prosecutor by telling him the details he knows‚ standing on t he witness stand in front of the jury answering questions about the case‚ and he has to make sure he has typed out a detailed report about the evidence ‚ the crime‚ and everything that has happened sense investigating that crime. All the while making sure he doesn’t let the murders‚ the street people who he has to talk to‚ the witnesses‚ attorneys‚ prosecutors‚ pathologists‚ politicians‚ and lieutenants to get to him. Otherwise its only a matter of time before the job burns him out and one day he walks off the job and never comes back. That is a tall order for anyone.

The detectives take on the challenge and put their best foot forward to bring justice to the city and to somehow keep the city safer. It’s a hard job and I commend the writer for spending a year with the detectives to show all the work they really do to solve murders and keep the crime rate down.

The author also shows the human and vulnerable side of what the cops are going through. They are dealing with solving murders and sometimes a case will come up where an innocent child was murdered and it is not easy for them to watch an innocent life taken away. He also shows the brotherhood of the department and how they watch each-others back. A bond has been built through working hard to solve murders and all the heaviness the comes along with working a emotionally draining job. They also brighten each other’s day by cracking jokes to create laughter when stresses are high.

There are so many different variables packed into this book and David Simon is brilliant at weaving all the elements together in a methodical way. The commitment to take a year off from work to do this project shows how well written the book is. If you are a lover of murder mysteries or criminal shows this is the book for you. The book is 599 pages and that can feel like a chore if the book does not engage you. However‚ I didn’t want to put this book down. I was invested from page one. This book was also inspired to create the popular show The Wire who David Simon created‚ and is a main writer on the show.

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