Burning Man is Setting for Murder Mystery

"The first time I went to Burning Man I thought I had to write a murder-mystery set there," Donn Cortez says while sitting in the backyard of his apartment off Commercial Drive, discussing his latest novel, The Man Burns Tonight. "Many murder mysteries today are novels of place, where the location is very important and becomes almost another character in the book. Wandering around Burning Man, I thought that this was the most unusual and interesting city on the face of the planet and it only exists for a week, so it would be the perfect place to set a murder mystery." Cortez was referring to the week-long festival held every August in the middle of the Black Rock desert in Nevada, that draws an average 30,000 people to a diverse, circus-like temporary city. Tents and trailers, campers and caravans spring up literally overnight as shelter against the harsh environment, only to disappear a week later without leaving a trace.