David Simon, a reporter with the Baltimore Sun, spent on year shadowing a shift of homicide detectives in Baltimore in 1988, when 234 people were murdered that year.

Simon’s book is the basis for the television series Homicide: Life on the Streets. If you’re a fan of the show, many stories came right out of the book. Simon is an amazing writer. FRom page 18 …

“Your paycheck may come from fiscal services but, goddammit, after six beers you can pretty much convince yourself that you work for the Lord himself… If you are good enough, you will never do anything else as a cop that matters this much. Homicide is the major leagues, the center ring, the show. It always has been. When Cain threw a cap into Abel, you don’t think the Big Guy told of couple of fresh uniforms to go down and work up the prosecution report. Hell no, he sent a fucking detective. And it will always be that way, because the homicide unit of any urban police force has for generations been the natural habitat of that rarefied species, the thinking cop.”

I can’t recommend this one highly enough.