Homicide clearance rates have plummeted in American cities, especially for Black victims, and journalist Jill Leovy spent years with the Los Angeles Police Department's homicide unit to understand why. Ghettoside follows detective John Skaggs as he investigates the murder of Bryant Tennelle, the eighteen-year-old son of a veteran LAPD detective, in a killing that illustrates patterns Leovy observed across hundreds of cases. The central argument is counterintuitive: Black communities suffer both from too much policing and too little. The drug arrests and petty harassment that define police presence in poor neighborhoods coexist with failure to solve serious crimes, particularly murders. When people cannot rely on the state to provide justice, they provide it themselves through retaliation, perpetuating cycles of violence. Leovy, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, embeds her argument in close observation of detective work. She shows how investigations fail for lack of witnesses willing to cooperate with police they distrust, and how dedicated detectives like Skaggs build relationships that allow them to clear cases others cannot. The book humanizes both victims and investigators without sentimentalizing either. Readers interested in criminal justice, urban sociology, or the lived reality of violence will find Leovy's reporting essential.