The Burning Plain

Michael Nava has garnered critical and popular acclaim for his mystery stories featuring gay Mexican American detective/lawyer Henry Rios. In the 1996 The Death of Friends Rios's best friend was brutally murdered. In The Burning Plain, Rios, still recovering from his loss, has taken up with a young man who is also murdered shortly after leaving his home. The police are initially suspicious of Rios, a situation that grows increasingly serious for him after two more young men are killed. Nava is an expert at combining plot and atmosphere, suspense and politics. Like P. D. James and Caleb Carr, Nava beautifully and thoughtfully writes "thinking persons" mysteries. The Burning Plain is that rare book: a cunning mystery and a serious novel.