The Burning Plain

Michael Nava

Feb 2013 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

Attorney Henry Rios fights for his freedom and his own life when a homophobic serial killer targets gay men in Los Angeles

Defense attorney Henry Rios knows how the system can be weighted against you . . . especially if you’re gay. His worst nightmare becomes a reality when a man he had been on a date with the night before is slain. Relentlessly pursued by a homophobic Los Angeles Police Department cop, Rios goes from prime suspect to target when more gay men are savagely murdered. The victims all suffer the same fate: They’re beaten to death, with a hate message carved into their bodies, and they’re dumped in an alley.

Rios must break through a conspiracy of silence that reaches to the highest levels of Los Angeles politics and Hollywood power. And the closer he gets to the truth, the closer he gets to becoming an enraged killer’s next victim.  
The Burning Plain is the sixth book in the Henry Rios mystery series, which begins with The Little Death and Goldenboy.

About the author

Michael Nava (b. 1954) is the award-winning author of seven novels featuring criminal defense lawyer Henry Rios. The Little Death (1986), the first book in the series, completed while Nava was in law school, was followed by Goldenboy (1988), How Town (1990), The Hidden Law (1992), The Death of Friends (1996), The Burning Plain (1997), and Rag and Bones (2001). He is also the co-author of the nonfiction book, Created Equal: Why Gay Rights Matter to America (1994). Nava is a six-time recipient of the Lambda Literary Award as well as the Bill Whitehead Lifetime Achievement Award for Gay and Lesbian literature. Michael Nava lives in San Francisco, where he works as an appellate lawyer.