As a reporter, she’s used to covering the news. Now she’s the headline. Alex Vlodnachek has been a reporter for 12 years, a P.R. rep for three months, and a murder suspect for all of 24 hours. When her agency's double-dealing CEO is stabbed, scheming co-workers cast the new redhead as a compelling red herring. The story is media catnip—especially her salacious nickname: Vlod the Impaler. Even Alex has to admit she looks guilty. Out of a job and under suspicion, Alex is running low on cash, when she’s visited by a second disaster: her family. Soon her tiny bungalow is bursting with her nearest and not-so-dearest. To keep herself out of jail—and save what’s left of her sanity—Alex returns to her reporting roots. She goes undercover to reclaim her life, break the story, and unmask a murderer. Pretty much in that order. What she doesn’t know: The killer also has a to-do list. And Alex is on it.

In the early 1960s, the quiet borough of Queens was rocked by the violent and brutal murders of Barbara Kralik, Annie Mae Johnson, and Kitty Genovese. These murders shocked not only Queens and New York, but the entire nation, especially when newspapers disclosed Kitty's neighbors heard her screams and looked on without calling the police. Two suspects were apprehended and indicted, Winston Moseley for the Genovese murder and Alvin Mitchell for the Kralik murder. Before the trials, Moseley claimed to have committed the Kralik and Johnson murders as well, not taken seriously by the police and DA until Moseley disclosed details only the actual killer could have known. Charles Skoller, the young prosecutor assigned to these trials was now faced with a prosecutor's nightmare. In Twisted Confessions, he details the murders and relives his investigations and trials that followed in the almost impossible task of revealing and convicting the actual killer.

If it wasn't for art thieves, spies and killers, Alex Vlodnachek's life would be bliss. Her freelance career is catching fire. Her relationship with B&B owner Ian Sterling is flirty and fun. She’s even attending a glittering cocktail party at his sprawling Victorian inn. But, to this ex-reporter, something seems “off.” And it’s not the canapés. When Ian’s father vanishes, the enigmatic innkeeper asks for her discretion. And her assistance. Meanwhile, Alex is having the opposite problem at her tiny bungalow: People keep piling in uninvited. Including a mysterious intruder found sleeping in her kitchen. Her grandmother, Baba, who shows up “to help”—with Alex’s own mother hot on her heels. When the intrepid redhead discovers a body in the B&B's basement and a “reproduction” Renoir in the library, she begins to suspect that Ian is more than just a simple hotel owner. With editor pal Trip, brother Nick, and rescue-pup Lucy riding shotgun, Alex scrambles to stay one step ahead of disaster—and some very nasty characters. Can she find the missing man before it’s too late? Or will Alex be the next one to disappear?

Freelance writer Alex Vlodnachek hasn’t had a vacation in ages. So when her sister invites her—and pup Lucy—for a girls’ get-away to Miami, it’s too tempting to resist. Big sister Annie wants Alex to savor a little fun in the sun at her South Beach condo. Redhead Alex just wants to escape complications at home, enjoy a little R&R and find an industrial-sized bottle of sunscreen. But trouble is hot on her heels—along with a few stray friends and relatives. On the eve of the condo association's hotly contested election, everything in the luxury high-rise is going haywire. But board president and social butterfly Leslie McQueen seems curiously absent amidst the chaos. Along with a good chunk of the association's cash. When several of Annie’s friends are left holding the bag, Alex jumps in to help—and discovers the tony condo tower offers no shortage of shady characters, murder, and mayhem. But when her brother, Nick, arrives—with their irrepressible grandmother, Baba, and Alex’s pal Trip, in tow—is the gang riding to the rescue? Or plunging Alex into more hot water? Praise for SEEING RED “Crazy surprises, fun characters, and a feisty heroine to save the day. Everything I love in a cozy.” —Lynn Cahoon, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author “Witty dialogue with laugh-out-loud moments, well-drawn characters and multiple mysteries weave their way through this satisfying story.” —Shelf Awareness

A New York Times bestseller | Soon to be a major motion picture “Witty, endearing and greatly entertaining.” —Wall Street Journal “Don’t trust anyone, including the four septuagenarian sleuths in Osman’s own laugh-out-loud whodunit.” —Parade Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves A female cop with her first big case A brutal murder Welcome to... THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves the Thursday Murder Club. When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case. As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it's too late?

"A mesmerizing read…A literary work of high distinction.” —William Grimes, New York Times This “gripping and poignant memoir” (New York Times Book Review) draws us into the intersections of everyday life and Communist power from the first days of “Liberation” in 1949 through the post-Mao era. The son of a professional family, Kang Zhengguo is a free spirit, drawn to literature. In Mao’s China, these innocuous circumstances expose him at age twenty to a fierce struggle session, expulsion from university, and a four-year term of hard labor. So begins his long stay in the prison-camp system. He finally escapes the Chinese gulag by forfeiting his identity: at age twenty-eight he is adopted by an aging bachelor in a peasant village, which enables him to start a new life.

This is a full-length study of Chinese crime fiction in all eras: ancient, modern, and contemporary. It is also the first book to apply legal scholars law and literature inquiry to the rich field of Chinese legal and literary culture.