Homicide Special: A Year with the LAPD's Elite Detective Unit

by Miles Corwin

Overview

With an Updated Epilogue by the Author

"A compelling portrait of seasoned homicide cops at work. This is L.A.'s darkest side: ironic, heart-breaking, stunningly violent, unfailingly human. Riveting."
-Jonathan Kellerman

The mandate for Los Angeles' unique police unit Homicide Special is to take on the toughest, most controversial, and highest-profile cases. In this "literate, unfailingly interesting work of true crime" (Kirkus Reviews), acclaimed writer Miles Corwin uses unprecedented access to narrate six of the unit's 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 into white slavery. When a gangster's daughter takes a bullet, veterans Jerry Stephens and Paul Coulter trace clues scattered across the country to a Manhattan real-estate magnate. A cold case is reopened; a mother-daughter drowning and a baffling rape/murder are solved. And, finally, Corwin re-creates the investigation surrounding the late Bonny Lee Blakley, allegedly murdered by her actor-husband, Robert Blake.

With a revised epilogue updating each of these fascinating cases, Homicide Special offers a riveting, behind-the-scenes look at one of the preeminent units of homicide detectives in the country.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780805076943
Publisher:	Holt, Henry & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	08/04/2004
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.89(d)

About the Author

A former staff reporter at the Los Angeles Times, Miles Corwin is the author of The Killing Season and And Still We Rise. He lives in Los Angeles.

Read an Excerpt

From Homicide Special:

Susan Berman’s wood-shingled cottage seems distinctly out of place at the edge of Beverly Hills. In Berman’s living room, a Liberace ashtray, shaped like a piano, holds a few crumpled butts. On the wall are pictures of Berman’s parents: her mother tap-dancing, one of her father’s wanted posters, which reads “Reward $8000.” Another wall features a photo of Susan in a party dress posing with Jimmy Durante. Her refrigerator contains only a carton of milk, a half-stick of butter, a jug of cranberry juice cocktail and a package of cheddar cheese.

In the spare bedroom where Berman was killed, faint winter light bleeds through the window and illuminates a few brownish-red commas of blood. Berman was found in a white T-shirt and purple sweatpants. Barefoot. A single bullet casing was discovered next to her body. She was shot once in the back of the head.

Editorial Reviews

Compelling . . . Corwin has helped demystify not just Homicide Special, but all of police culture, and given it a very personal face.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

From the Publisher