Heat Wave

One of my favorite CSI: MIAMI reads! When the leaders of a number of gangs in Miami start dying, it's up to Horatio and the CSI crew to figure out who's behind the deaths -- and the answer will surprise you! Another great, quick CSI read.

I think Max Allan Collins has much more a feel of the Miami characters than he does for the Vegas ones. This book is very well written, and is very true to the series.

Collins did a great job at capturing each charactors personality. Also he did great at showing how well the charactors worked together.

After the drive-by killing of crime boss Kurt Wallace, a war between the many gangs of Miami began to vie for control of the Miami's underworld. Soon each gang becomes a victim to an attack, only to turn around and kill out of revenge, leading to the city becoming a bloodbath. Soon after this all starts, a DEA hotshot, Jeremy Burnett, is wounded and his wife killed in drive-by identical to the murder of Wallace, bringing the Feds into the picture as well. Lieutenant Horatio Caine and his CSI team are trying to solve the mystery behind the Wallace murder because they believe that once they find out who started the gang war, they can bring an end to it. On top of this, this all has to be done before the Governor is forced to bring in the National Guard to stop the gang war.One thing I like about Collins' CSI books is that they aren't based on a specific episode of CSI (like you find with other novelizations of TV series) but are stand alone books. It was nice being able to relate to the main characters of the book since I am familiar with the show. However, I did get very confused with all the different gangs, their leaders, and who was involved with what that I almost had to start taking notes. Unless an author is generous enough to put in a separate listing of cast of characters, I'm not too thrilled when a book gets like this. Other than that, it was an enjoyable, easy read and well worth putting on a summer reading list.