The Restless Sleep: Inside New York City's Cold Case Squad [Paperback]

Stacy Horn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 25, 2006

An unflinching look at New York’s most enigmatic crimes and the cops who make it their job to solve them

Between 1985 and 2004, a staggering 8,894 unsolved murders were committed in New York City. Here is the first-ever inside look at the elite NYPD squad that cracks the “unsolvable” cases. Drawing on her unique access to the Cold Case Squad, Stacy Horn follows three tough, indefatigable cops as they sift through the clues to four puzzling murders, from the 1951 strangling of a young wife to a 1996 drug hit that claimed the lives of the parents of three children. As gripping as anything on TV—and much, much more authentic—The Restless Sleep is a completely addictive behind-the-scenes account of the people who offer a final resolution for the unavenged. BACKCOVER: “Masterful storytelling.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“While Sleep hardly makes for soothing bedtime reading, Horn’s gripping writing and palpable sense of outrage ensure that its narrative trail never runs cold.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“There is rarely a dull page as Horn portrays her colorful band as they challenge the perplexing past.”
—The Baltimore Sun

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. NPR contributor Horn's deft writing and unique access to detectives laboring to bring justice to the many forgotten victims of murder create a significant addition to the genre. Horn tracks four very different unsolved killings—a brutal torture of drug dealers while their young children were restrained in an adjoining room; the murder of an off-duty cop who interrupted a robbery in progress; an apparent sex crime turned fatal that claimed the life of a teenager; and the fetishistic strangling of a transplanted Southerner. Each crime presents unique obstacles for the dedicated detectives assigned to them, and each yields very different results. The heroic and three-dimensional portrayals of the individual police officers are compelling, but many will find more novelty in Horn's detailed assessment of the bureaucratic turf battles surrounding the cold case squad, and the serious obstacles NYPD reformers continue to face. Several notches above the typical reporter's insights into the realities of criminal justice, and, given the continued popularity of the CBS TV drama Cold Case, Horn's book is likely to find a wide readership. Agent, Betsy Lerner. (July 11)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"NPR contributor Horn's deft writing and unique access to detectives laboring to bring justice to the many forgotten victims of murder create a significant addition to the genre."
-- starred, Publishers Weekly (Publisher's Weekly ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (July 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143037293
• ISBN-13: 978-0143037293
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,665,548 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm currently working on a book about singing for Algonquin Books. "I believe in singing. I believe in singing together." - Brian Eno. My book is about the history and science of singing together, and about about the world of choral singing.

My most recent book is about the former Duke Parapsychology Laboratory and it's called Unbelievable. Scientists have always disdained parapsychology, but there was a time, from the 30s to the 60s, when the scientific community thought, well, okay, ectoplasm, seances and table rappings aside, maybe there is something going on. Duke opened a lab to study the various phenomena, and for a few decades, a group of serious scientists and graduate students tried to find if there was anything there. My book is about the result of their experiments and investigations.

I grew up on Long Island, got a B.F.A. from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and a graduate degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating! But flawed (only slightly!), August 8, 2005

By 

D. McDiffett "iteachlit" (Salina, KS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Restless Sleep: Inside New York City's Cold Case Squad (Hardcover)

Although I enjoyed reading "The Restless Sleep" very much and will recommend it to friends, I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because of the organizational format of the book. Instead of following each one of the four intriguing cases to its conclusion, Horn divides the cases between several chapters. The large number of names becomes confusing and readers may find themselves flipping back to previous chapters about a particular case to refresh their memories about who was who in the 1951 Sanseverino case, the 1988 Diefenbach case, the 1977 Stapleton case, or the 1996 Leon/Martinez case. The book is wonderfully "real" and informative, but I will recommend skipping chapters, reading about one case in its entirety first before moving to another one. I think that will make for a smoother reading experience.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down, July 26, 2005

By 

Pez (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Restless Sleep: Inside New York City's Cold Case Squad (Hardcover)

I mean that literally. Horn's book was one of those where I'm in bed reading, it's way past my bedtime, and I keep thinking "Just one more page..."

Here's what you get between the covers: real, sometimes flawed heroes, and heartbreakingly real vicitims, and the very real and therefore sometimes flawed process by which the murderers are tracked down and brought to justice. There are a number of unsolved murder stories that loop back and forth and over and through each other, and the book's structure makes that work. It's a page turner that defies expectations.

Or, put simply: an excellent read.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hits Close to Home and Stays There, September 17, 2005

By 

Miette "Miette" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Restless Sleep: Inside New York City's Cold Case Squad (Hardcover)

A disclaimer: Horn is gripping for reasons already noted on this page: her aptitude for getting deep under the skin of her subjects, and bringing that depth deep under the skin of her readers. Her captivating voice and yen for the finer details of procedure, of files, of inventory. Her compassion for the dead and use of the book as a eulogy for them.

Et cetera.

But: here's what's absolutely remarkable about it. Walking around the streets of Brooklyn (and though The Restless Sleep is local to New York, these stories can be dropped onto any city, really), you feel you've been treated to a history lesson, a detailed reminder of the ghosts in the buildings, under the streets, in the waters around you. This morbid niche of history helps comprise the breathing pulse of a city, and this is the moral lesson here.

And: what matters most-- it's simply a great read.