Crime Asia

Rodrigo Duterte was elected President of the Philippines in 2016. In his first 18 months in office, 12,000 people were murdered on the streets, gunned down by police officers and vigilante citizens - all with his encouragement. Duterte is a serial womanizer and a self-confessed killer, who has called both Barack Obama and Pope Francis "sons of whores." He is on record as saying he does not "give a shit" about human rights. Yet he is beloved of the 16.6 million Filipinos who voted for him, seen as vulgar but honest, a breath of fresh air, and an iconoclastic, anti-imperialist rebel.

Jing-nan has known Peggy Lee, a bullying frenemy who runs her family's huge corporation, since high school. Peggy's father has been kidnapped, and the ransom the kidnappers are demanding is not money but IP: a high-tech memory chip that they want to sell in China. Jing-nan feels sorry for Peggy until she starts blackmailing him into helping out. Peggy is worried the kidnappers' deadline will pass before the police are able to track down the chip. But when the reluctant Jing-nan tries to help, he finds himself deeper and deeper in trouble with some very unsavory characters.

Ranjit Singh, a former Indian Army Captain trying to escape a shameful past, now lives on Martha’s Vineyard, and works as a caretaker for the vacation homes of the rich and powerful. One harsh winter, Ranjit needs a place to stay, and illegally moves his family into an empty, luxurious vacation home belonging to an African American Senator. Ensconced in the house, he tries to forget his brief affair with Anna, the Senator’s wife, and focuses on providing for his family. But one night, their idyll is shattered when mysterious armed men break into the house, searching for an antique porcelain doll.

In Taiwan, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for prioritizing family. When 25-year-old Jing-nan's gangster uncle, Big Eye, asks a favor, Jing-nan can't exactly say no, especially because two goons are going to follow him around to make sure he gets it done right. The favor is this: Big Eye's 16-year-old daughter, Mei-ling, has a biker boyfriend from the wrong side of the tracks and Big Eye wants Jing-nan to bring her to Taipei, away from the bad influences, and straighten her out.

What’s lost doesn’t always stay that way… Sleuth Kim Smith always knew adventure was on her horizon, and now she has her chance. After being contacted by one of her clients, she sets off to Europe in search of art stolen by the Nazis during World War II. Thinking nothing of it, she smiles at a charming stranger seated behind her on the plane, which changes her trip more than she intended. The following day at an art auction, a chance meeting with him develops into something more. She has no idea that the one piece he’s interested in might hold a secret that could blow her case wide ...

In March 2019, two militants were killed during a siege at a house in Nowgam, on the outskirts of Srinagar. One of them was known simply as 'Idrees Bhai'. The encounter was forgotten for the most part, until investigators came upon a mangled phone that had been destroyed by Idrees Bhai. When the Samsung smartphone began to reveal its secrets, investigators realized they had hit upon a motherlode.

Taipei is rocked by the back-to-back murders of a petty criminal and a police captain just as the city is preparing to host the big Austronesian Cultural Festival. The celebration is set to bring in indigenous performers from all around the Pacific Rim to the island nation of Taiwan. Jing-nan, the proprietor of Unknown Pleasures, a popular food stand at Taipei’s largest night market, is thrown into the intrigue. Is he being set up to take the rap, or will he be the next victim? T

One by one, Tahir Hamut Izgil's friends disappeared. The Chinese government's brutal persecution of the Uyghur people had continued for years, but in 2017 it assumed a terrifying new scale. The Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim minority group in western China, were experiencing an echo of the worst horrors of the twentieth century. Over a million people have vanished into China's internment camps for Muslim minorities. Waiting to Be Arrested at Night is the story of the political, social, and cultural destruction of Tahir Hamut Izgil's homeland.

Retired Air Force three-star General Tom McMann’s peaceful life is shattered by the dying message of Ace Lyons, "the George Patton" of the US Navy - the Global Elite, a.k.a. the Swamp, will use the NSA computer software SCORECARD to hack the 2020 Presidential Election. Before he even starts to look into the issue, the SCORECARD software developer is killed in a car crash. A political thriller with intrigue, twists, and high-octant excitement mixed with current events from the year 2020!

Edge of the Abyss by Robert Fisher is a novel that manages to pack together a poignant love story and a thriller that will keep you glued to the book for hours. Three months have passed since Simon Kane decided to pursue Networc, the organization that was behind the murder of his wife Sheila. Simon and Sheila were agents at Silhouette until Sheila was shot right in front of him by the Networc’s mysterious agent, Counselor Black, while both were on a mission in Belarus. Meanwhile, Mai, the daughter of Lin Yunao, the leader of the Heise She li Triad, the largest criminal organization in ...

On a residential Bay Area block struggling with the collision of gentrifier condos and longtime residents, stymied recent MFA grad Philip Kim is sleeping the night away when bullets fly through a window in his apartment building and end up killing one of his neighbors. But when Philip gets caught up in the investigation and becomes the focus of an elaborate, violent scheme, he will learn far more than he ever wanted to about his former four-eggs-at-a-time borrowing neighbor, Dolores Stone.

LA gardener Mas Arai returns to Hiroshima to bring his best friend’s ashes to a relative on the tiny offshore island of Ino, only to become embroiled in the mysterious death of a teenage boy who was about the same age Mas was when he survived the atomic bomb in 1945. The boy’s death affects the elderly, often-curmudgeonly, always-reluctant sleuth, who cannot return home to Los Angeles until he finds a way to see justice served.

More than 550 days and counting, and we are still being ravaged by COVID19. Western media worked hard to confuse us at the beginning as everyone took shelter in their houses in a concerted effort to protect their families and nations. Underlying the motive of the intentional release of COVID19 was deep-rooted racism and hatred that permeates all nations in Asia, especially East Asia. This racism, masked as nationalism, is indirectly responsible for the billions of lives affected and the millions of lives lost during this pandemic. The media and sociologists have lied to us calling East ...

During the occupation of Japan after WWII, the US had an important decision to make. Should they hold those responsible for atrocities during the war accountable or should they take the information to advance the national interest? The researchers who worked at Unit 731, the biological and chemical warfare research and development unit, were given immunity in exchange for their research data. Unit 731 included factories filled with humans, tested with various diseases, as well as field tests on civilians of the Soviet Union and China. Imperial Japan had aspirations to develop operative ...

A child is awakened by the nighttime screams of a neighbor reliving the worst of the war that has just ended. Twenty-five years later, the two meet again in a world that has changed. But, have they? The wounds we suffer are often unseen. Some are wounded by humiliation and animosity simply because they are deemed to be different. Others are wounded by the trauma from events over which they had no control. This is a story of both.

Will Chen, a Chinese American art history student at Harvard, has spent most of his life learning about the West—its art, its culture, all that it has taken and called its own. He believes art belongs with its creators, so when a Chinese corporation offers him a (highly illegal) chance to reclaim five priceless sculptures, it's surprisingly easy to say yes.

In the weeks after Japan finally surrendered to the Allies to end World War II, the victorious powers turned to the question of how to move on from years of carnage and destruction. For the Allied powers, the trials were an opportunity both to render judgment on their vanquished foes and to create a legal framework to prosecute war crimes and prohibit the use of aggressive war. For the Japanese leaders on trial, it was their chance to argue that their war had been waged to liberate Asia from Western imperialism and that the court was no more than victors’ justice.

Nikko: As the “Handler” my duty was to protect, not fall for the captives. Margo shattered those rules. Now, she’s trapped in my world of carnal iniquity, her horror-stricken eyes haunting me. My first assignment since disgracing the Yakuza-either a test or punishment. Margo’s sorrow awakened sentiments thought long dead and buried. I never expected to be uncontrollably enamored by her. Extracting her would ensure certain death, but her enchantment compelled me to undertake this hazardous mission. Risk it all to escape this hell and the darkness within myself. Saving her might be my...

In Murder in Manchuria, Scott D. Seligman explores an unsolved murder set amid the chaos that reigned in China in the run-up to World War II. The story unfolds against the backdrop of a three-country struggle for control of Manchuria—an area some called China's "Wild East"—and an explosive mixture of nationalities, religions, and ideologies. Semyon Kaspe, a young Jewish musician, is kidnapped, tortured, and ultimately murdered by disaffected, antisemitic White Russians, secretly acting on the orders of Japanese military overlords who covet his father's wealth.

Vivian is a cosmopolitan Taiwanese-American tourist who often escapes her busy life in London through adventure and travel. Johnny is a 15-year-old Irish teenager living a neglected life on the margins of society. He has grown up in a family where crime is customary, violence is a necessity, and everything - and anyone - can be yours for the taking. As Vivian looks to find her calling professionally, she delights in exploring foreign countries, rolling hillsides, and new cultures. But all of that changes when...Vivian's path collides with Johnny.