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 *

A remarkable psychological and personal picture of 18 men labouring under immense pressure in traumatic circumstances . . . it is not just a majestic piece of reporting, it demonstrates Simon's instinctive ability to identify how the political and psychological interact . . . It reads like a thriller as he takes you through the desperate world of inner city West and East Baltimore, slaying by slaying

* Daily Telegraph *

A reporter who keeps his wits about him . . . A very good book

* The New Yorker *

<i>Homicide</i> is as intense a work of observation as you're likely ever to find, studded with Simon's caustic, wry and suspicious personality, as well as the ability to portray people as they truly are, usually a complicated shade of grey

* Herald *

Simon has captured the poetry of the meanest streets

* Los Angeles Times *

<i>Homicide</i> is a beautifully-written, almost poetic observation of a desperately harrowing subject and Simon deserves the highest praise for going to the darkest places of the underbelly of the American dream and coming out with a gripping account of what it is like to live and work there

* Tribune *

Brushes away the accretions of myth to reveal the banality of crime . . . it's a sober, unsurprised account of the desperately sad lives of people who commit most crimes and a quiet testimonial to the people who clear up the mess

* Word Magazine *

Remarkable . . . A True Crime Classic . . . a journalistic masterpiece of a brutal, bloody, bewildering year in the Baltimore Police Department's homicide unit

* Associated Press *

Certainly one of the most engrossing police procedural mystery books ever written, not only because the crimes and plots and personalities are real, but because Simon is a terrific writer who has mastered the necessities and nuances of his material

* Newsday *

The world of urban violence has never been so well portrayed, nor has the day-to-day craft of the detective

* Chicago Tribune *

Simon followed a group of Baltimore detectives through a year on the mean streets. The resulting book is a hefty volume, giving Simon cope for a huge amount of detail and it's this, I think, that makes it such compulsive reading. How the detectives work - the crime they dace, the casual murders, the hopeless lives - all seen through Simon's eyes and those of the detectives he follows so closely

* Publishing News *

A frank, insightful, and meticulously detailed look at detectives and their work

* San Francisco Chronicle *

An amazingly frank and often hilarious tribute to homicide detectives everywhere . . . Simon has taken the art of covering cops to a new high

* Washington Times *