What Fire Cannot Burn by John Ridley

Chalk one up for Ridley - a sequel that far outshines its predecessor (Those Who Walk in Darkness- reviewed here). In this outing, Soledad "Bullet" O'Roark is still recovering from the events that transpired at the end of the first novel, coming to grips with her new role as the top bad-ass on the MTac squad. MTac does what cops and SWAT can't do - hunts down rogue superhumans. And they're all criminals in this America, their very presence outlawed by the government after a disastrous fight in San Francisco between two metanormals leaves half a million people dead.

Soledad is a bigot, a true hater of all mutantkind, a very confolicted and troubled cop. Her partner from the first novel, Eddi Aoki, has issues of her own regarding SF. They're both living life to deal justice to the superhumans. Only this time, the cracks are starting to show. Soledad and Eddi are wearing down, becoming aware of their mortality, and society is starting to question the tactics the cops use to bring metanormals down. Worse still, there's a serial killer loose, possibly the strongest mutant ever seen, who's making it his business to murder every metanormal he can.

Soledad and Eddi must track him down, suss him out, and stop him. It proves difficult. Soledad tries to infiltrate the Intelligence Department to find out if the whole thing is an inside job. What she discovers leads to one of the most shocking twists I've ever read in a series like this.

Take the elements of your favorite crime dramas: The Shield, Law & Order, the Sopranos, turn them up a notch and toss in some superpowers, and you'll have Ridley's amazing near-future Los Angeles sci-fi masterpiece. The characters are all too real. Nobody walks away without scars (or missing limbs, or worse...). These cops are real, raw, exhausted, and fighting for what they believe in.