Twenty-six years ago, Law & Order: SVU came to life on NBC. It’s still running, about to kick off its 27th season on September 25. It’s now the longest-running live-action primetime series in U.S. TV history.

None of which Susan Green and I could have anticipated when we heard that Dick Wolf was going to give us access to write The Law & Order SVU: Unofficial Companion in 2008. As I like to say now, our book, which came out in 2009 and was compiled in 2008, was meant to be the definitive, whole ...