Alessandra Ranelli

Alessandra Ranelli is an American author living abroad in Vienna, Austria. Her work focuses on life's great passions: love, loss, and lust. She’s been known to kiss and tell.

Alessandra’s crime writing is influenced by her taste for old Hollywood glamour and golden age crime. It’s a cocktail made from a generous pour of bourbon, an ounce of film noir, and a dash of bawdy humour — served in a rocks glass with red lipstick staining the rim.

Her autobiographical work is marked by its raw, often brutal, honesty. As a professional storyteller she is known for making audiences laugh and cry in equal measure.

Alessandra’s first novel, Murder at the Hotel Orient, will be published in February 2026. It is the first in the Sterling Lockwood Mysteries series, about the humorous and debaucherous exploits of the beguiling concierge at an anonymous love hotel. Her extensive book research included working as a receptionist at a traditional hotel, as well as becoming the Writer in Residence of the Hotel Orient, where the novel is set. She’s seen every room, even the hidden ones.