Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon

The Book that started it all. David Simon's brilliant award-winning non-fiction account of a year spent with Homicide detectives in Baltimore.

If you've never read The Book, you're in for a treat. Many of the coolest cases and bits of dialogue on the show were lifted right out of this book.

The Corner : A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighbourhood by David Simon & Edward Burns

Simon & Burns' brilliant non-fiction account of a year on a drug corner in Baltimore. HBO's award-winning miniseries The Corner was based on this amazing book.

And yes, the book was mentioned in an episode of Homicide.

Homicide: Life on the Screen by Todd Hoffman

This is the official companion for Homicide: Life on the Street. It's probably my favorite of the two companions, too, because it features a chapter that updates us on what the detectives from The Book are up to these days (and how they felt about The Book and the TV series).

The book doesn't cover season 7 or The Movie.

Homicide: Life on the Street - The Unofficial Companion by David P. Kalat

This was the first companion to be published and it's episode guide covers seasons 1-5 and part of season 6 if I recall correctly. It's a good reference, and some fans favor it over the official companion, despite the fact that there are a lot of errors in the book.

All three of these novels by Jerome Priesler were based on the show. Most fans agree that they aren't very good.

They're all out of print at the moment.

Practical Homicide Investigation : Tactics, Procedures and Forensic Techniques by Vernon J. Geberth (Editor)

This is the book that Tim Bayliss refers to during the Adena Watson case.

Law & Order: The Unofficial Companion by Kevin Courrier, Susan Green

This is what it sounds like, an unofficial companion to Law & Order. And yes, it does cover the crossovers with Homicide.