Every 36 hours a citizen is shot, stabbed or bludgeoned to death in Baltimore. And at the centre of this is the city's homicide unit, a small group of men who fight for whatever justice is possible. The author gained access to a homicide unit, and this book is the story of a year on the violent streets of an American city. The narrative focuses on three detectives, each driven in his own way to find out how and why the bodies fall. Around them is a supporting cast and a city that is torn by racial tensions and plagued by an epidemic of drugs and crime.