Law & Order: Crime Scenes [Hardcover]

Dick Wolf (Author), Jessica Burstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 2003

NBC’s Emmy award-winning hit series Law & Order is television’s longest-running drama. Like the series, Law & Order: Crime Scenes walks a thin line between reality and fantasy, presenting gritty crime scene photographs. Producer Dick Wolf discusses how he came up with the idea for the crime drama and describes each of the years’ main characters, accompanied by pictures. Aficionados will particularly delight in Wolf’s revelations about the characters’ personal lives. A postmortem commentary by photographer Jessica Burstein features thumbnails of the pictures, noting which episode each is from, with anecdotal information, and a brief synopsis of the crime scene.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Considering Law & Order's popularity, over 88 million viewers watch it and its spinoffs and reruns each week, the dearth of books about the show is fairly surprising. This literary tribute, divided neatly into three sections, is more than a fetishist's bedside companion. Wolf, the show's creator, offers a brisk introduction, setting the tone with some revealing background tidbits (e.g., Wolf and his colleagues chose a bifurcated format for the show so it could be syndicated as either a half-hour or full-hour show). "Anatomy of a Crime Scene," by far the most revealing section, takes a 2002 episode, "Oxymoron," and explains how it came together, bit by bit. Wolf gives everyone e.g., the police technical consultant, the executive producer, the actor playing a corpse (she was paid $161 for the day's work)a few crisp, concise paragraphs to explain their contributions. The "Scenes of the Crime" portion shares photos of the central crime scenes (taken by Burstein, the show's still photographer). While some of the images are too obviously composed, most are impossible to distinguish from real crime scene shots. The book's final section, "In the Criminal Justice System," which gives a loving overview of the show's major players (including Paul Sorvino, Angie Harmon and Jerry Orbach), is, while good enough, probably for serious fans only, as casual readers may not be as interested in learning, for example, why the character Detective Sergeant Phil Cerreta is a snappy dresser. Altogether, this is a simple, classy and authoritative gift book. B&w photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Sterling; 1 edition (December 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402710925
• ISBN-13: 978-1402710926
• Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 10.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,100,265 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is awesome!, October 15, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Law & Order: Crime Scenes (Hardcover)

I've been waiting for months for this book to come out, and it was worth the wait! I LOVE Law & Order, and this book really captures what the show is all about...the dark, sometimes disturbing search for justice. I especially love the part where Dick Wolf discusses how he came up with each character (especially my favorite A.D.A., Jack McCoy!) If you're a fan of Law & Order, you'll want to own this book.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is amazing!, October 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Law & Order: Crime Scenes (Hardcover)

The best show on TV deserves of book of this caliber. It is truly excellent. I loved reading about all of the major characters, and the photos of the crime scenes make you think they are real. That's what makes this book incredible. Just like the show, it crosses over between fiction and reality, so much that you think these crime scenes must be real. I am going to buy this book for all my friends who are nuts for the show.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not a coffee table book, maybe, but great for fans, May 24, 2004

By 

Andrew S. Rogers (Stamford, Connecticut) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Law & Order: Crime Scenes (Hardcover)

"Law & Order" is becoming the British Empire of TV franchises: the sun never sets upon it. At any given moment, somewhere in the world, some station is probably broadcasting an episode of one of the three L&O series. If you're one of the many people who consider this a Good Thing, "Law & Order: Crime Scenes" is a book for you.

Much of the book is taken up by "crime scene" photos from the original "Law & Order" series. These photos not only illustrate the care taken by the show's actors and technicians, but are themselves often featured in the program. Serious fans will thus have fun playing "Name That Episode" with these images. While you know they're all staged, many of these photos are nevertheless rather gory and blood-spattered, and some are downright gruesome. That's why I doubt this book will be left out on the coffee table when the grandparents visit. Unless, of course, Grandma's an L&O fan too.

While the photos themselves are interesting (and one, at least, is surprisingly moving: the photo of Claire Kincaid [Jill Hennessy] "dead" in her car following the accident that took her out of the program), I was more intrigued by the sections that bookend them. The last part of the book consists of thumbnail biographies of L&O's principal characters. From Max Greevey and Paul Robinette all the way to Ed Green and DA Arthur Branch, series creator Dick Wolf not only explains their history on the show, but also why they were created, why they left (in real life and "TV life"), and how they progressed. While he doesn't answer any questions about a Jack-Claire affair, he does at least provide an explanation for Serena Southerlyn's changing dress and hairstyles from season to season.

On the front end, Wolf's introduction includes an excellent discussion of how the show was created, what he set out to do, and how well he thinks he's achieved it. This is followed by an in-depth look at the process of creating the "teaser," the two scenes between the initial fade-in ("In the criminal justice system...") and the opening credits. Everyone involved, from the techs to the actors to the real NYPD officers monitoring things and even the corpse herself, get a chance to speak about their role in the process. It's a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how a television production happens.

This book isn't really a viewers' guide to the show, and contains no episode summaries or anything like that. But many hard-core fans will no doubt get a lot out of it anyway. And even people interested in knowing how a series TV production goes from script to screen will probably enjoy the experience too.