Ghettoside

Superbly told. A provocative examination of how and why murder happens and a fast-paced crime narrative

Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Devil in the Grove

What an amazing book – totally gripping

Paul French, author of Midnight in Peking

Exceptional. This book will take an honoured place on the shelf that includes David Simon's classic Homicide

Martin Amis

Fantastic. Not just a gritty, heart-wrenching, and telling book, but an important one. Everyone needs to read this book

Michael Connelly

Lucid, revelatory, superbly written, incredibly timely. I was astonished by Jill Leovy's Ghettoside in which police and race in America are examined with forensic skill and furious, exceptional prose. Unmissable.

Chris Cleave

A brilliant investigation into the American violence epidemic disguised as a highly entertaining true crime book

Matt Taibbi, author of The Divide

Thoroughly engrossing. The bravest book about race and crime I’ve ever read

Dan Baum, author of Nine Lives

Mind-blowing in its forensic detail, Ghettoside's insight into post-Michael Brown, post-Eric Garner America cannot be overstated. This is the best corrective to all those who wring their hands in despair in the face of race, social justice and policing in the United States

Rt Hon David Lammy, MP

A serious and kaleidoscopic achievement … Nestled inside the story of one gang-related killing is a well-made and timely argument — especially in the wake of the protests in Ferguson, Mo., and over the death of Eric Garner — that transcends a single death … tidal in its force … displaying an almost Tolstoyan level of human sympathy … Ms. Leovy is excellent on the street-level detective work … She is just as excellent on the resulting court proceedings … Her answers are complex and persuasive … a crisp writer with a crisp mind and the ability to boil entire skies of information into hard journalistic rain

Dwight Garner, The New York Times

Timely … nuanced … Leovy’s relentless reporting has produced a book packed with valuable, hard-won insights … crucial

The New York Times Book Review

Gritty reporting that matches the police work behind it… Her premise is simple, powerful and runs counter to prevailing views. … masterful… clear and compelling

Los Angeles Times

Brave … eye-opening … The pace in Leovy’s book is set by the chase … her knowledge makes for lapidary prose that crackles with insight … deeply humane

Financial Times

Riveting … extraordinary … For long passages, it enveloped and transported me more completely than any other work of nonfiction I have ever read

Ed Caesar, Sunday Times

‘Powerful, gripping … What sets Ghettoside apart from the slew of factual police procedurals published every year, is a compelling analysis of the factors behind the epidemic of black-on-black homicide, and the beginnings of a policy prescription for tackling it. This makes Ghettoside an important book, which deserves a wide audience

Hari Kunzru, Guardian Book of the Week

Astonishing … mixes historical survey and true-crime story with polemic … important, eye-opening

Independent

Ghettoside, if there’s any justice, will be the most important book about urban violence in a generation. And in one of those rare moments of utter kismet, it has appeared just when we need it most … it is no secret that America has a problem with black-on-black violence. But what Leovy understands is why … This is not about America or Los Angeles or black neighborhoods, Leovy shows. It’s about law … Ghettoside should change our understanding of and the debate about what’s going on in our most troubled neighborhoods … The book should bring some much-needed balance to the current debate about what post-Ferguson policing should look like … She is exactly right, and she has done an enormous public service in making what should be obvious, and has not been, obvious once again

Washington Post

What makes Ghettoside so special — and enduring — is not its argument but its emotional content … Leovy refuses to allow the black residents of South LA to be reduced to data points. She grabs us by the chin and makes us see: these are mothers, fathers, children. These lives matter. These deaths matter. These experiences matter

LA Review of Books

The best crime journalism since Serial

Esquire

Told with the chilling detail and gripping pace of a prime-time drama ... Leovy weaves in other heartbreaking stories ... a compelling report from the trenches

Economist

A gripping, best-selling true crime narrative, interwoven with engaging theory and infused with quiet outrage

Independent

Destined to become a classic of crime writing

Herald Scotland

Razor-sharp ... written with compassion and insight

Big Issue

A terrific work of reportage

Scotsman

A really fascinating true crime book, perfect for fans of David Simon. Reads like the best kind of thriller

Eva Dolan

Magnificent … an immaculately researched work of reportage

Spectator

Beyond impressive. She wears her research lightly, weaving heavy statistical lifting through delicately nuanced, sensitively handled personal narratives … filled with riveting snippets of social history … a superb and dogged work of reporting with a gripping narrative … a hugely impressive work

Sunday Business Post

Simply one of the finest books ever written about crime in LA – and crime in America, for that matter … Tremendously touching … astonishing … achieves greatness through its ability to be both timely and timeless

New Statesman

extraordinary… it enveloped and transported me more completely than any other work of non-fiction I have ever read

Ed Caesar, Sunday Times

Leovy's distressing - and distressingly relevant - book examines the epidemic of murders of African-Americans in South Los Angeles over the last decade.

USA today, books of the year

It's to the author's credit that Ghettoside is so hard to put down, and that you wind up caring for everyone involved. When killers are caught, you don't feel victorious so much as sad. Another life wasted. Unlike a detective novel where you think, "Well, that happened," here there's the sense of the grinding wheel, one gang-related murder after another. On and on and on. It's relentless and brutal, and Jill Leovy's account of it is art.

David Cedaris, Book of the Month