Mid-21st Century Los Angeles: after a succession of natural disasters, in a landscape wracked by global warming, the city is now the western-most outpost of an Arab empire. Ali is a Los Angeles-born police officer. His local birth leaves him under suspicion when he discovers the body of the daughter of one of the Caliph's ruling elite. Arab-born fellow officer Shah seeks to link Ali and this murder to American insurgents. To save himself and his family, Ali must discover whether this girl was a victim of an honor killing by her family, a political murder by a rival faction, or a sex crime. To solve the murder, he must enlist the help of the victim's sister. Caliphornia is a fast-paced novel of suspense that should appeal to mystery and suspense fans, as well as readers of literary fiction.

After being acquitted of his wife's brutal murder, celebrity television news anchor Wade Newsome claims to be targeted by an assailant bent on exacting divine justice. Is this mysterious Righteous Avenger a figment of Newsome's guilty conscience, a publicity stunt intended to speed his return to the Deadline News anchor desk, or a genuine threat? A skeptical LAPD detective, Carl Pope, must determine the truth of Newsome's claims. "Deadline News" combines suspense with Hollywood satire, in the vein of Seth Greenland's "The Bones." "Deadline News" is also, more broadly, a social satire, taking on America's media culture and the public's obsession with celebrity trials. With its focus on the intersection of societal alienation and the entertainment industry, "Deadline News" also recalls the work of Nathanael West. In this era of Robert Blake and O. J. Simpson, "Deadline News" is a topical, humorous, and readable novel of suspense.