• Homicide

  • A Year on the Killing Streets
  • By: David Simon
  • Narrated by: Reed Diamond
  • Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (1,477 ratings)

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Homicide  By  cover art

Homicide

By: David Simon
Narrated by: Reed Diamond
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Publisher's summary

Through wonderfully descriptive writing, Simon details the work of 15 detectives, three sergeants and a lieutenant charged with investigating dozens of Baltimore's 234 murders that year. Simon takes listeners inside the detectives' lives, describing the frustration of departmental red tape and politics, the bursts of energy and moments of despair.

With an eye for the scenes of slaughter and pursuit and an ear for the cadences of cop talk, both business and banter, Simon gives this brilliant, harrowing account its authenticity and fascinating edge.

Simon plants us so close to these detectives that we see everything - the Police Department, the prosecutors, the courts, the city of Baltimore itself - from their angle.

This is a never-before-seen look at what it's really like to investigate murders for a living.

©1997 David Simon (P)1997 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

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What listeners say about Homicide

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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Avoid abridged books

Great reader and good story but that's as far as it goes because you only got a portion of the whole piece. Stay away from abridged works in genres like this.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great!

I listened to this book on the basis of other reviews. They are right! Homicide has a terrific reader, is well written, and is a blast to listen to. This is a fun, interesting listen that should make us all appreciate detectives and policemen even more.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

worth the listen

if you like true crime and how it works from the detective side this is a great read. I have been hearing about this book from a podcast for over a year and I got around to reading it. I wish I had earlier.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book

The only problem with this book is that it's not long enough. Does a great job showing how tough it is to be a cop in a big city and unfortunately, how little respect is given for human lives

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Baltimore native

Being from Baltimore I found this book very enjoyable and correct for that time period.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Good read overall.

Good book with several parts for a police officer to appreciate.

Jumped around a bit though.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A top shelf cop story

This was the cause of another listening until daylight event from Audible. It’s the gold standard for people who have never worked a graveyard shift to get a taste of what goes bang in the night in a city near you.

Chief, J.M. Boyle ( Ret. )
KF4COP

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Story

Fantastic writing and stories. I am a retired 30 year police veteran. Very true to life stories. You can put yourself in the Police or Detective's situation and it is very scary.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A true story well told!

The unflinchingly honesty of this story is both engaging and repelling at the same time. Absolutely among the best cop stories, ever!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Spoils you for other mysteries

This book, and the show based on it, are such an unbeliveably realistic, complex, clever, and engaging way of telling a 'mystery story' that I can no longer enjoy pat mysteries where the killer reveals all at the end. This is a phenomenal book, and read superbly by the narrator.

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25 people found this helpful