Detroit is an urban nightmare. Half the population has fled; acre upon acre have been razed by arsonists; each day brings fresh murders; half the children live in poverty and half the adults are functionally illiterate; City Hall has long been beset by corruption; racism is endemic. It does not need J G Ballard to conjure up this hell, just a reporter with a shrewd eye and an open notebook.

Mark Binelli is the man for the job: born in the city’s suburbs – the descendant of a tribe of Italian migrants who cornered the knife-sharpening business in the last century – he departed, started writing for Rolling Stone magazine and returned to chronicle the ‘last days’ of his native