The Burning Plain by Michael Nava

Still reeling after the death of his former lover, criminal defense lawyer Henry Rios unwisely falls for a young actor whom he had successfully defended on trumped-up burglary charges.

But just hours after a date with Rios, the man is brutally murdered--and the trail of circumstantial evidence leads an unscrupulous police detective to Rios' doorstep.  And when a second young man, and then a third, are found dead, Rios must fight not only to exonerate himself, but to save his very life.

Embroiled in his own investigation of the case, Rios exposes an intricate web of blackmail, betrayal, corruption, and violence--a conspiracy that reaches from the Los Angeles criminal courthouse to the studio lots to the mayor's office.  And in the end, Rios knows that one more murder won't make a difference to anyone....