The burning plain

About this book

Still devastated by the death of Josh, Henry nonetheless falls for a young actor he successfully defended against burglary charges. When the young man is murdered after leaving Henry's house, Henry finds himself the target of a murder investigation. But the murders don't stop, and with his life in desperate danger, Henry follows the trail of evidence, ever upward to the top levels of Los Angeles politics and Hollywood power. Michael Nava is the author of seven Henry Rios novels, five of which ("Goldenboy," "Howtown," "The Hidden Law," "The Death of Friends," and "Rag and Bone") have been Lambda Literary Award winners. He is an attorney in private practice in San Francisco.

Themes & subjects

About the author

Michael Nava

16 September 1954

Michael Nava is the author of an acclaimed series of eight novels featuring gay, Latino criminal defense lawyer Henry Rios who Garth Greenwell, writing in The New Yorker, called “a detective unlike any previous protagonist in American noir.” The New York Times Book Review has called Nava “one of our best” writers. He is also the author of a historical novel, The City of Palaces, set in Mexico at the beginning of the 1910 Mexican revolution, the first of a projected trilogy.