Homicide by David Simon

This was the book that started it all. It was later turned into a TV series, which used to be, by far, my favourite detective series. Later David Simon went on to make The Wire. Homicide is not really literature because it is factually based, but it reads like fiction and is wonderfully well written. The characters are great and there's a lot of humour. Some of the stories are jaw-dropping. It also contains the story of Snot Boogie, which was used again as the opening scene of the first series of The Wire.