Homicide

June 3, 1991
Baltimore Sun reporter Simon spent a year tracking the homicide unit of his city's police, following the officers from crime scenes to interrogations to hospital emergency rooms. With empathy, psychological nuance, racy verbatim dialogue and razor-sharp prose, he offers a rare insider's look at the detective's tension-wracked world. Presiding over a score of sleuths is commander Gary D'Addario, ``connoisseur of survival'' who grapples with political intrigue, massive red tape and ``red balls'' (major, difficult cases). His detectives include Tom Pelligrini, obsessed with solving the rape-murder of an 11-year-old girl; Rich Garvey, whose ``perfect year'' is upset by a murder case that collapses in court; and black, cosmopolitan Harry Edgerton, a lone wolf, son of a jazz pianist. This hectic daily log reveals the detective's beat on Baltimore's mean streets (234 murders in 1988) to be brutal, bureaucratic and, occasionally, mundane.

September 15, 2006
As Richard Price says in his new introduction, Simon -camped out - with the Baltimore PD -s homicide unit for a year while researching this no-punches-pulled look at murders and the cops who solve them. The 1985 title was the basis of the award-winning NBC drama of the same name.

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 26, 2023
As cutting, darkly funny, and true today as when it was first published in 1991, Simon’s landmark nonfiction crime narrative gets an appropriately noirish graphic novel adaptation that does right by the original. As a Baltimore Sun police beat reporter, Simon (The Wire) spent 1988 following the city’s homicide detectives. The first half of a duology drawn by Squarzoni (Climate Changed) maintains the density of Simon’s reportage and his trademark mix of procedural detail (indoor killings are easier to solve than outdoor; motive doesn’t matter) and elevated sardonic humor. Early stretches give a feel for the city and the job, grooving on the detectives’ profane language and self-mocking gravitas enough to personalize them without simplistic heroizing. Tensions mount as the body count piles up (two murders every three days) and detectives are torn between clearing old cases and focusing on the high-profile “red balls” or “murders that matter.” Of those, solving the brutal killing of 11-year-old Latonya Wallace (“a true victim, innocent as few of those murdered in this city ever are”) becomes a departmental obsession. Squarzoni’s sharp, clean line art renders dramatically etched shadows and starkly clenched nighttime faces, the muted colors occasionally splashed with bloody red for yet another body sprawled on a Baltimore street. It’s a must-read for Simon’s many fans and anyone who appreciates sophisticated true crime.