Episode guides often let you down by being just that: a book of plot synopses. True to The Wire's unsurpassed quality, this 'episode guide' has the synopses muscling for space with essays from the likes of George Pelecanos and a Nick Hornby interview with creator David Simon. Essential stuff.

RAFAEL ALVAREZ was born in Baltimore in 1958 and educated at Catholic schools. He received an English degree from Loyola College in Baltimore in 1981.

His books include Orlo and Leini, a collection of short fiction, and Storyteller, an anthology of his two decades of feature reporting for the Baltimore Sun.

In 2009, Alvarez published an essay on the expansive nature of storytelling - as evidenced in his fiction and THE WIRE - in Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives, released by the MIT Press of Cambridge, Massachusetts. He's an American author based in Los Angeles and Baltimore.

DAVID SIMON's Homicide: A Year in the Killing Streets won the Edgar and Anthony Awards and became the basis for the award-winning NBC drama. Simon's second book, The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighbourhood, co-authored with Ed Burns, was made into an Emmy-winning HBO miniseries. Simon was an executive writer and producer for HBO's Peabody Award-winning series THE WIRE. He lives in Baltimore.

Other contributors: Victor Paul Alvarez, Michael A. Fletcher, Greg Garland, Nick Hornby, Joy Lusco Kecken, Laura Lippman, Ann DeLordo, George Pelecanos, Deborah Rudacille, Tom Waldron, Anthony Walton and William F. Zorzi.