If I would have read this book before watching Homicide TV series or The Wire, it would have earned more stars because of the eye-opening description of the work of police detectives and the station house power plays. However, the story telling of the book looses to the two works of fiction mentioned. This may be understandable because of the requirements of describing real people and events, but nonetheless this book was a slow read and even boring at some points.

I respect David Simon for the work done and will probably read the other book written by him at some point.