I'm a great fan of Gregg Hurwitz and readers here have seen me review many of his thrillers. His most recent novel, The Crime Writer, combines a hot page-turner with an introspective literary story that is captivating.

Hurwitz is known for getting first-hand background for a book by going and doing what his characters do. He's trained with the Navy Seals, ridden with a biker gang, and spent many an hour shadowing police officers. For this book, Hurwitz drew on what he knows best, the writing process and contacts a crime novelist uses.

The story begins with writer Andrew Danner waking up in a hospital bed with no memory of how he got there. He soon learns that he has had surgery for a massive brain tumor and he has been charged with the murder of his ex-girlfriend. Though Danner soon avoids jail time because of the tumor, his is still regarded as a murderer (even if he wasn't in full control of his faculties). When another women is found murdered in much the same way as his ex, and with his DNA on the body and on a plastic drop cloth found in his trash, Danner tries to prove his innocence of both murders by using every contact and resource he has. As those doors rapidly slam in his face, his only cohorts end up being a juvenile delinquent, his editor, and a tried-and-true best friend.

Danner's search for truth and exoneration make a fast-paced mystery, but Hurwitz injects an intimacy into this work that sets it far above his usual tightly-written, street-real fare. Hurwitz expands the story with exquisite descriptions of Los Angeles where the story takes place, insightful commentary about the culture of money, and painfully honest explorations of the life of a crime writer and, most importantly, those of his tortured protagonist. Hurwitz's portraits of other characters are just as poignant and real when he describes the closed life of Danner's flamboyant editor, the warm chaos of his best friend's big family, the creative desperation of a young offender, the angry courage of the teen halfway house director, and the profound hopelessness of a criminalist dealing with his wife's pending death.

The Crime Writer is an exceptional read that combines the best of thriller fiction with the vivid description and interior analysis of literary novels. There were moments when not just an interesting turn of phrase was placed among the racing story (as Hurwitz is wont to do), but whole paragraphs and pages of startling images and insights led me off into deeper realms and, frankly, took my breath away.

The Crime Writer is by far Hurwitz's best work.

Look for his new novel, Trust No One, coming out this summer.