Recommended in the New York TimesA Punishing Breed the first in a series of novels featuring Detective DJ Arias is a murder mystery that takes place in Los Angeles the city of angels freeways Santa Ana winds and honeysuckle slithering through chainlink fences and perfuming LAs dark streets and neighborhoods. Arias hunts for a murderer on a liberal arts campus that prides itself on its progressive curriculum but is rife with jealousy racial and sexual tensions and a hierarchy as real and destructive as a medieval fortress. DJ Arias good at his job because he sees the worst in people is challenged by the college community a neighborhood recluse and a young Latino gardener he sent to jail ten years ago for a hitandrun accident. Through the course of his investigation Arias will find out no one is who they appear to be.