Burning Man

When I pick of a crime/mystery novel, I usually know in the first twenty pages if I'm in or out. Russell had me from the beginning straight to the end and looking for more. The set-up for the story takes place in the prologue when Michael utilizes his police dog partner Sirius to track down and arrest a serial killer, initially dubbed The Santa Anna killer because his murders all took place during the Santa Anna wind weather episodes. During this capture all three are trapped in a wildfire and suffer life changing physical damage. After a long recovery time Michael manages to convince everyone in the police department that he is well both physically and emotionally and is given the opportunity to lead a new investigative unit dubbed the Special Cases Unit. Sirius will be allowed to serve also since he no longer qualifies for the K-9 Unit because of his injuries in the fire. All things L.A. weird will be assigned to Gideon and Sirius, those cases which might otherwise fall through the cracks. The ending seemed too abrupt, felt a little disappointed with the ending. Other than that it was a good book.