Part of Series
Lieutenant Horatio Caine of the Miami-Dade Crime Lab is called in to investigate a mysterious death at an organic eatery. He finds the victim, waiter Phillip Mulrooney, bent over a stainless steel toilet, his clothing shredded. There are burn marks on his face and cell phone fragments scattered around, and his shoes are blown off his feet. Incredible as it seems, the initial evidence points to death by lightning strike. The staff at The Earthly Garden believe Mulrooney's death is an act of God—punishment for straying from the Vitality Method, their spiritual philosophy that inner beauty can be revealed by nurturing the physical and spiritual. The only philosophy Lieutenant Horatio Caine believes in is justice for the victim—and he'll move heaven and earth to get it.
Author
Pseudonyms: Don DeBrandt & DD Barant Donn Cortez is a pseudonym for Canadian author Don DeBrandt. Born in Saskatchewan, he currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. In addition to North America, his books have been published in Germany, France, Italy, and Russia. His influences include Spider Robinson and John D. MacDonald, among others. He took a darker turn for The Closer, a hard-edged story about a serial killer hunting other serial killers. His follow-up, The Man Burns Tonight (set at Burning Man) was more of a classic mystery. This was followed in rapid succession by five CSI: Miami tie-in novels and two CSI: Vegas novels.He has also contributed numerous pop-culture essays to BenBella’s SmartPop anthologies, on subjects such as Angel, Firefly, The Golden Compass, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, King Kong, the X-Men, Star Wars, and Star Trek. He was the guest editor (as well as a contributor) to the essay anthology Investigating CSI.
