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

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 Specialoffers a riveting, behind-the-scenes look at one of the preeminent units of homicide detectives in the country.

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.

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.