Amy Chua

Amy Chua, a Yale Law School professor and nonfiction author, turned to historical mystery for her fiction debut. The Golden Gate unfolds in Berkeley in 1944, where Detective Al Sullivan investigates a case at the Claremont Hotel that reaches back to an earlier family tragedy. Chua uses the mystery to explore class, migration, political power, and the social divisions of wartime California. Published by Minotaur Books, the novel draws on real Bay Area history and figures from the period. It was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award and selected for Library Journal's best-books list.