Homicide Special

Abridged
Author: Miles Corwin
Narrator: Jonathan Davis
Genres: True-Crime
Publisher: Audio Renaissance
Date: January 2004
Length: 6 hours
Ratings:
  • Book Rating: 3/5
Formats:
  • CD

Overview

Los Angeles is a town of dreamers—and of those who prey on them. The scene of innumerable bizarre crimes, it is also home to a unique police unit called Homicide Special, whose mandate is to take on the toughest, most controversial, and high-profile cases. Now acclaimed writer Miles Corwin uses his unprecedented access to this legendary unit to portray six of its cases—and capture its newest generation at work.
When a call girl from Kiev dies in the line of duty, detectives Chuck Knolls and Brian McCartin seek her killer among a circle of Russian women who have been sold unwittingly into white slavery. When a gangster’s daughter, brought up in Las Vegas, takes a bullet, veterans Jerry Stephens and Paul Coulter trace clues scattered across the country to one of Manhattan’s wealthiest real estate magnates. A cold case is reopened, a suspicious mother-daughter drowning, and a baffling rape/murder cases are solved. And finally, Corwin re-creates the investigation surrounding the late Bonny Lee Bakley, a woman driven—like her city—by the desire for fame and allegedly murdered by her actor-husband, Robert Blake.
Compulsively readable, artfully written, and surprisingly redemptive, Homicide Special offers a thrilling insider’s report on some of the nation’s most high-profile and complex homicides—and the extraordinary men who solve them.

Reviews (6)

Homicide Special - not worth it

Written by Laurajean on November 7th, 2006

  • Book Rating: 2/5

I’d have to say that I agree with several other reviews on this book. I don’t know if it was the narrator, or the author that made the book monotonous. For the author, he seems to be writing a “Homicide Detectives for Dummies” book they way he would go into detail on what the detectives were doing, and their reasoning for doing it. I felt like the author was trying to school me on routine detective activities like interviewing and evidence collecting, rather than telling me a story. Formatting Criticism; the entire disk was one chapter. If you ever removed the CD, it would take forever to find your spot again. Also, they narrator didn’t indicate chapters. As a result, you’d be listening to a story about one murder case, and suddenly they would be talking about another case. There are so many good books out there... pass this one by.

Agree with most others on this one

Written by Shane Nixon from Burlington, NC on June 20th, 2005

  • Book Rating: 2/5

Narrator is bad, as he makes this seem like monotone lecture than good non-fiction. Stories jump around so much that I REALLY got confused. And worst of all, as other wise indicated is the format. Basically a chapter a disk with no way to get from one to the other made listening a chore. In all honesty, I think this formatting issue made it harder to like than anything else. None of it worked for me, but I think in a different format I could have handled it much better!

HOMICIDE SPECIAL

Written by Annie Ludwig from Taholah, WA on May 4th, 2005

  • Book Rating: 2/5

This did not work well for me - each disk is worked as one chapter - and I was unable to devote the time needed to listen to an entire disk in one seating, as I was unable to forward 1/2 of this disk with the setup as it was. What I did hear jumped around a bit. I would have prefered to have each case told from begining to end.

Worth the rent!

Written by Nicole McNamee-Wicks on April 7th, 2005

  • Book Rating: 4/5

Exactly as described, well written and very interesting

Homicide Not-so-Special

Written by Anonymous from Glen Carbon, IL on December 21st, 2004

  • Book Rating: 3/5

I dutifully listened to the end even though I wasn't particularly interested in the outcome. The flip-flopping accents of the narrator was irritating.

Homicide Special

Written by Melissa Maurice on December 3rd, 2004

  • Book Rating: 3/5

Though the concept was interesting, I found this work to be very dry and read more like a journalistic venture relating facts and less of the entertaining, engaging read I was expecting. I felt the characters came off as one dimentional and as a result, I failed to become invested in the story completely.