He Jiahong, it seems, can work a room as well as he can hold readers on tenterhooks. On March 26, the highly respected legal expert and novelist opens the 2015 Beijing Bookworm Literary Festival discussion marking the release of his second English-language novel, Black Holes, with the qualifier, "I can speak Chinese as well as Chinglish." The audience laughs.

Black Holes is a translation of the second of five novels, originally published in Chinese and featuring crusading lawyer Hong Jun. Meeting He the day before in his book-piled office located within the Beijing-based Renmin University of China's labyrinthine Mingde complex, he is the least self-conscious literary writer imaginable, maintaining that he is no expert in the field of literature.

The professor is being modest. Judging from Black Holes, he is a confident writer with an assured grasp of plot and characterization and a lawyer's eye for observing telling details. One subject on which the professor displays no diffidence is criminal law. In an academic career centered on criminal prosecution and forensics spanning four decades, he has encouraged development of China's criminal trial procedure and, working with the Innocence Project, has played a part in reopening cases of suspected wrongful conviction. The professor also helped to launch China's first anti-corruption postgraduate course and has contributed to the composition and editing of over 100 legal textbooks.

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