Originally published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ©1999

Jack Wade was the rising star of the Orange County Sheriff's Department's arson unit, but a minor scandal cost him everything, except his encyclopedic knowledge of fire. Now working as an insurance claims investigator, Jack is called in to examine a suspicious claim: within hours of a disastrous blaze tearing through a wing of real estate mogul Nicky Vale's house, causing the horrific death of his young wife, Nicky filed a 3-million-dollar insurance claim. The tracks of the fire tell Jack that something's wrong, and as he follows the evidence the case grows to involve the Russian mob, Vietnamese gangs, real estate scams, counterfeiting and corporate corruption. Things get so hot and deadly that Jack might not make it out alive, that is until he decides to fight fire with fire.--

Recipient of the Raymond Chandler Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award