Murder in New York City /

News reports and fictionalized accounts of homicide fascinate Americans, and the residents of many cities, like New York City (NYC), often use murder rates as a quality-of-life index. Monkkonen (history and policy studies, UCLA) provides a historical perspective on homicide in NYC free from media sensationalism. To explore the history of murder in NYC, the author compiled a sizable database covering the past 200 years. However, statistics provide only a framework, and Monkkonen uses coroners' inquests, court minutes, and police reports to examine the homicides committed in the city. The 37 tables and figures do not overwhelm but complement the author's analysis, revealing that the homicide rate in NYC, which was sometimes far below the national average, fluctuated depending on a variety of social and cultural factors. Urban historians will find his examination of the race, ethnicity, and gender of both perpetrator and victim informative, while historians interested in crime and the urban US will find this work a useful starting point for their studies on NYC. Upper-division undergraduate students and above. T. D. Beal SUNY College at Oneonta