The author of this week’s cover story knows his way around crime. As deputy chief of the Violent and Organized Crimes division of the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles, Bruce Riordan was responsible for bringing many of the most dangerous gang members in L.A. to justice. As the current Special Litigation Counsel in the Public Corruption and Civil Rights division, he continues to go to court nearly 25 years after he started as a federal prosecutor in 1991. Ross Macdonald would have appreciated the attention of someone so well situated to understand the places and issues he wrote about, and who has witnessed firsthand what became of the landscape portrayed in the Lew Archer novels.