About the Book

On the morning of December 14, 2005, Las Vegas police and firefighters were called to the desert outside of Las Vegas for a car fire. A 2003 Jaguar was in flames, and inside the trunk of the vehicle was the badly burned body of a young Las Vegas woman named Melissa James. The 28-year-old had suffered a horrifying fate - she was restrained, her face was covered with duct-tape, and she was set on fire.

The disturbing discovery prompted a massive police investigation, and within hours, detectives were standing at the front doorstep of two of the nation's most recognized fitness celebrities - Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan.

Titus is a past place finisher in the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding competition, and his antics appropriately earned him the nickname the "Bad Boy of Bodybuilding." Meanwhile, his elegant wife, Ryan, is widely recognized as one of the premier womens' fitness competitors in the country.

But within the week, the two would be known as something else: murder suspects in the death of James, who was their live-in personal assistant. After being interviewed by police in the death of James, Titus and Ryan fled Las Vegas, prompting a national manhunt in what has become one of Las Vegas' most high-profile murder cases in years.

Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter and true crime author Glenn Puit has the inside scoop on the evidence gathered by Las Vegas police against the couple. Through his investigative reporting, he obtained the exclusive witness statements gathered by police, and condensed those statements into a riveting new book about the Titus-Ryan case.

The book offers an independent examination of the fitness couple's sordid lifestyle, their actions before and after their personal assistant was found dead, and it also includes Titus and Ryan's recorded statements to the police.

Fire in the Desert serves as an evidentiary handbook for those following the case, providing a detailed legal analysis by Las Vegas courtroom experts as to what Titus and Ryan can expect during their upcoming murder trial.

If you like true crime, don't miss out on this one!