A Good Month for Murder

May 1, 2016
Propulsive account of a hard-charging homicide unit in a high-crime Washington, D.C., suburb.Wilber (Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan, 2011), who covers the Justice Department for the Los Angeles Times, develops a vivid sense of place alongside gritty workaday realities, resulting in a fresh take on the familiar topic of killers and their pursuers. He focuses on Prince George's County, a sprawling "microcosm of the new America" that conceals startling murder rates, even during the chilly February of 2013, when the detectives he shadowed felt "there was simply too much pent-up violence on the streets, and it needed an outlet." The resulting 12 murders included gang sprees, home invasions, drug-conspiracy killings, and predatory robberies. The rash of violence fully taxed the 25 detectives whom Wilber profiles, a diverse, eccentric, yet accomplished array who can be "like cut-ups in high-school biology class"--notwithstanding their grisly surroundings and the challenge of investigation, equal parts forensic precision, bureaucratic documentation, and Kafka-esque conversations with criminal prevaricators. Such interviews with suspects make up several tense stretches, where "for the most part, the suspect deflects and evades" while still giving away insights to their interrogators (and Wilber). In a narrative light on technical and tactical aspects of policing, the author focuses on environmental and tactile details, humanizing his detectives and a supporting cast of victims, survivors, and perpetrators. Many murder victims are entrenched in the regional underground of drug dealing and serial crime, making the detectives jaded and the investigations a slog; contrastingly, the detectives work furiously to solve the vicious killings of a teenage honor student and an elderly woman. Regarding these cases involving innocent victims, one veteran detective exclaims, "We are going old-school here." Wilber embedded with the unit for several months, until his "narrative architecture" suggested itself; this immersive approach allows him to capture the cops' inner monologues and their prickly exchanges with criminals and one another with effective clarity. Readable, appealing true crime with an undercurrent of unease at the violence creeping into so many postindustrial "edge city" communities.

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February 15, 2016

Wilbur (Rawhide Down) delves into how the homicide squad for Prince George's County, MD, scrambled to solve 12 murders and three police-involved shootings in February 2013. It was pure chance that the author was involved in the events of this deadly month. Given full access to the squad with the provision that the police department could review the manuscript prior to publication, Wilbur agreed to the condition as long as he had full editorial control. To protect the witnesses, some names were changed. He provides the reactions and personalities of the detectives working on the cases and mentions that owing to space constraints not all incidents that occurred in the specified period were included in this account. VERDICT The book is written like a novel and put together via time sequence--and therein lies the problem, as the narrative's continuity becomes choppy and at times hard to follow. No doubt Wilbur has the expertise to pen these accounts, but the presentation is a turn off. Pass on this purchase.--Michael Sawyer, Pine Bluff, AR

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2016
Journalist Wilber, crime reporter and author of Rawhide Down (2011), about the assassination attempt against President Reagan, gives readers a close-up view of how the detectives on a homicide squad work in this disquieting, fascinating book. Wilber states that a major influence on his book was David Simon's acclaimed Homicide (1992), about a year in Baltimore's homicide unit. In a kind of updating of that work, Wilber chronicles the nearby and very busy homicide squad in Prince George's County, Maryland, which abuts Washington, D.C. With the police chief granting almost unprecedented access, Wilber was able to produce a rare snapshot of homicide investigation in action, from crime scenes through families' homes, interrogation rooms, and squad rooms. Wilber gives the kind of detail that can only be acquired through intensive interviewing and observation. For example, cops put on a case face, looking serious at crime scenes, lest a photographer catch them smiling. The text pares down Wilber's findings from one year of reporting to one month of activity, February 2013, which was loaded with 12 homicides and one continuing, shocking case. A fascinating report written in a relentless, real-life noir tone.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)