Book recommendations?

[Karen Dionne]

I'm looking for dark, character-driven police procedurals to read - mysteries along the lines of Tana French's IN THE WOODS or Stef Penney's THE INVISIBLE ONES - stories that focus less on the crime, and more on the investigation, preferably with a detective as the main character. Any suggestions? Thanks!

[Karen Dionne]

Thanks again for all the suggestions! 

As it happens, I found the PERFECT book for my needs, not in fiction, but in nonfiction: David Simon's HOMICIDE: A Year on the Killing Streets. David's writing is beautiful, his storytelling is enthralling, and the details he writes about are accurate, so not only am I inspired by the book, I'm learning useful details that I can incorporate into my own work at the same time.

He has another, THE CORNER, that I had to order in print (not that I have anything against print, but in this case, because of my short deadline, the electronic version of the first book was a lifesaver).

[Dana King]

There is no better look at detectives' lives than HOMICIDE. I re-read it every few years as a reminder.

I read THE CORNER a few years ago. Changed my perspective on a lot of things.