{"product_id":"california-fire-and-life-isbn-9780307279859","title":"California Fire and Life","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eTHE CARTEL.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhen Jack Wade is called in to examine a suspicious arson claim, he follows the evidence into the crime infested inferno of the California underworld. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Jack Wade was the rising star of the Orange County Sheriffs 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—he 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.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Things get so hot and deadly that Jack might not make it out alive . . . that is until he decides to fight fire with fire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e“A smoking, smoldering threat of a book that flickers and flames and inevitably goes inferno. . . . Cover to cover, it is hot, hot, hot.” —\u003ci\u003eAustin Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The best crime thriller of the year. . . . Mixes two parts of Elmore Leonard with an equal portion of Carl Hiaasen to form an irreverent, ribald hybrid of a thriller that's pure fun.” \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Providence Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[Winslow finds] a dark, sinister lyricism in the forensics of fire.” \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A jazzy California thriller. . . . Think Philip Marlowe if he were still sleuthing--and had taken up surfing.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e (Editor's Choice)\u003cp\u003eBestselling author Don Winslow has written nineteen books and numerous   short stories, as well as writing for television and film. He has  received the Raymond Chandler Award, the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e Book  Prize, and the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award.  A former  private  investigator and trial consultant, Winslow lives in Southern   California.\u003c\/p\u003e1 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWoman's lying in bed and the bed's on fire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe doesn't wake up.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFlame licks at her thighs like a lover and she doesn't wake up.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJust down the hill the Pacific pounds on the rocks.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCalifornia fire and life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGeorge Scollins doesn't wake up, either.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReason for this is that he's lying at the bottom of the stairs with a\u003cbr\u003ebroken neck.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt's easy to see how this might have happened--Scollins's little Laguna Canyon house is a freaking mess. Tools, wood, furniture lying all over the place, you can hardly walk across the floor without tripping on something.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn addition to the tools, wood and furniture, you have paint cans, containers of stain, plastic bottles full of turpentine, cleaning rags .\u003cbr\u003e. .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is also the reason the house is a bonfire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNot surprising, really.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNot surprising at all.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCalifornia fire and life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e3\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwo Vietnamese kids sit in the front of a delivery truck.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe driver, Tommy Do, pulls it off into a parking lot.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Middle of freaking nowhere,\" says Tommy's buddy, Vince Tranh.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTommy doesn't give a shit, he's happy to be getting rid of the load, a\u003cbr\u003etruck full of hot stuff.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTommy pulls over by a Caddy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"They love their Caddies,\" Tranh says to him in Vietnamese.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Let 'em,\" Tommy says. Tommy's saving for a Miata. A Miata is cool. Tommy can see himself cruising in a black Miata, wraparound shades on his face, a babe with long black hair beside him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYeah, he can see that.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwo guys get out of the Caddy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne of them's tall. Looks like one of those Afghan hounds, Tommy thinks, except the guy's wearing a dark blue suit that has got to be hot standing out there in the desert. The other guy is shorter, but broad. Guy wears a black Hawaiian print shirt with big flowers all over it, and Tommy thinks he looks like a jerk. Tommy has him tabbed as the leg breaker, and Tommy is going to be glad to get his money, unload and get the fuck back to Garden Grove.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs a general rule, Tommy doesn't like doing business with non-Vietnamese, especially these people.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExcept the money this time is too good.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwo grand for a delivery job.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe big guy in the flowered shirt opens a gate and Tommy drives through it. Guy closes the gate behind them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTommy and Tranh hop out of the truck.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBlue Suit says, \"Unload the truck.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTommy shakes his head.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Money first,\" he says.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBlue Suit says, \"Sure.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Business is business,\" Tommy says, like he's apologizing for the money-first request. He's trying to be polite.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Business is business,\" Blue Suit agrees.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTommy watches Blue Suit reach into the jacket pocket for his wallet, except Blue Suit takes out a silenced 9mm and puts three bullets in a tight pattern into Tommy's face.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTranh stands there with this \u003ci\u003eoh-fucking-no\u003c\/i\u003e look on his face but he doesn't run or anything. Just stands there like \u003ci\u003efrozen,\u003c\/i\u003e which makes it easy for Blue Suit to put the next three into him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe guy in the flowered shirt hefts first Tommy, then Tranh, and tosses their bodies into the Dumpster. Pours gasoline all over them then tosses a match in.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Vietnamese are Buddhists?\" he asks Blue Suit.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I think so.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey're speaking in Russian.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Don't they cremate their dead?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBlue Suit shrugs.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn hour later they have the truck unloaded and the contents stored in the cinder block building. Twelve minutes after that, Flower Shirt drives the truck out into the desert and makes it go boom.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCalifornia fire and life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e4\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJack Wade sits on an old Hobie longboard.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRiding swells that refuse to become waves, he's watching a wisp of black smoke rise over the other side of the big rock at Dana Head. Smoke's reaching up into the pale August sky like a Buddhist prayer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJack's so into the smoke that he doesn't feel the wave come up behind him like a fat Dick Dale guitar riff. It's a big humping reef break that slams him to the bottom then rolls him. Keeps rolling him and won't let him up--it's like, \u003ci\u003eThat's what you get when you don't pay attention, Jack. You get to eat sand and breathe water\u003c\/i\u003e--and Jack's about out of breath when the wave finally spits him out onto the shore.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe's on all fours, sucking for air, when he hears his beeper go off up on the beach where he left his towel. He scampers up the sand, grabs the beeper and checks the number, although he's already pretty sure who it's going to be.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCalifornia Fire and Life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e5\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe woman's dead.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJack knows this even before he gets to the house because when he calls in it's Goddamn Billy. Six-thirty in the morning and Goddamn Billy's already in the office.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGoddamn Billy tells him there's a fire and a fatality.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJack hustles up the hundred and twenty steps from Dana Strand Beach to the parking lot, takes a quick shower at the bathhouse then changes into the work clothes he keeps in the backseat of his '66 Mustang. His work clothes consist of a Lands' End white button-down oxford, Lands' End khaki trousers, Lands' End moccasins and an Eddie Bauer tie that Jack keeps preknotted so he can just slip it on like a noose.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJack hasn't been inside a clothing store in about twelve years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe owns three ties, five Lands' End white button-down shirts, two pairs of Lands' End khaki trousers, two Lands' End guaranteed-not-to-wrinkle-even-if-you-run-it-through-your-car-engine blue blazers (a\u003cbr\u003erotation deal: one in the dry cleaners, one on his back) and the one pair of Lands' End moccasins.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSunday night he does laundry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWashes the five shirts and two pairs of trousers and hangs them out to unwrinkle. Preknots the three ties and he's ready for the workweek, which means that he's in the water a little before dawn, surfs until 6:30, showers at the beach, changes into his work clothes, loops the tie around his neck, gets into his car, pops in an old Challengers tape and races to the offices of California Fire and Life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe's been doing this for coming up to twelve years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNot this morning, though.","brand":"Vintage Crime\/Black Lizard","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46305512128741,"sku":"NP9780307279859","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780307279859.jpg?v=1767723274","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/california-fire-and-life-isbn-9780307279859","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}