Author comes along at the right time, arson-wise

Malibu author Kurt Kamm sets his novels in the world of Los Angeles County firefighters. In his newest, "Code Blood," a fire paramedic on the search for a woman's stolen severed foot "encounters an underworld of Goth fetishists, body parts dealers, a woman with a full upper body tattoo, a killer, and a strange Chinese woman involved in stem-cell research." But it's his previous book, "Red Flag Warning," that seems timely today.

Los Angeles County is burning. A serial arsonist is setting the parched hills on fire. Plunge into infernos and face the smoke, heat and danger with the men on the fire lines. While NiteHeat prowls in the darkness, setting fires and taunting investigators, the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Arson Unit struggles to find the fire-setter and stop the devastation.

Who is NiteHeat? Is it Ruffy, the 911 dispatcher who has failed firefighter training? Is it Mikey, a dropout who appears at every fire and steals firefighting equipment? Is it Father Dom who claims the fires are started by Satan? Discover the incendiary device triggered by a cooking timer from Williams Sonoma.