Reminiscent of hardboiled noir in the past, One Day You'll Burn is simultaneously an homage to classic movies and an exciting mystery. Five years ago, Tully Jarsdel abandoned his Ph.D. path, much to the dismay of his fathers, who are both professors. He joined the Los Angeles police force, and is now a detective on a special fast-track promotion plan, to the chagrin of his new partner, Morales, a veteran detective. Jarsdel and Morales get called to the scene of a bizarre crime in Hollywood, where the victim was apparently slowly baked to death. The terrifying corpse, which looks almost like a grotesque movie prop, has been left at the base of a pagoda in Thailand Plaza.
Jarsdel and Morales are stymied at first, unable even to identify the victim, and horrified that one human could treat another so cruelly. Slowly, after taking a break to work on their other case (in which a series of dogs are poisoned on the wedding days of their owners), Jarsdel and Morales find the beginning of a bizarre trail of clues that seem to have connections to both classic Hollywood and the Thai mafia. Can nerdy Jarsdel and stolid Morales find a way to work together to catch a vicious killer?
Joseph Schneider's juxtaposition of crime and academia is a curious one, and readers will find Jarsdel's complicated character intriguing. Fans of James Ellroy or Raymond Chandler will enjoy the vibe of One Day You'll Burn, the first in a projected series. --Jessica Howard, bookseller at Bookmans, Tucson, Ariz.