A pivotal bone-chopping moment of awareness
On his radio show National Security This Week, thriller author and former US military intel officer Jon Olson asked me why I'd specialized in Western Hemisphere issues as an intelligence officer. Related: National Security this Week broadcast Build things and Fix...
Detective Emilia Cruz’s Origin Story
What is Detective Emilia Cruz's origin story? How was the mystery series invented? Well, it started with poinsettias. Many, many poinsettias. The following is from the Author's Note in the new edition of CLIFF DIVER, the first book in the Detective Emilia Cruz mystery...
Killer Nashville on Writing International Mystery and Crime Fiction
Killer Nashville, the international mystery writers conference, is a gold mine of inspiration and resources for the mystery and thriller author, including those who write international mystery and crime fiction. Held last month outside Nashville, TN, Killer Nashville...
Book Review: HEAD WOUNDS by Dennis Palumbo
HEAD WOUNDS is the most recent entry in the action-filled Dr. Daniel Rinaldi thriller series by Dennis Palumbo. Dr. Rinaldi is a Pittsburgh-based psychologist and police consultant with a few rough edges and a remorseless, deranged enemy. The combination is an...
Book Review: THE SEPTEMBER SOCIETY by Charles Finch
THE SEPTEMBER SOCIETY by Charles Finch THE SEPTEMBER SOCIETY is one of the early novels in the Charles Lenox historical mystery series, which is my new obsession. Imagine Victorian London through the eyes of an upper-class private detective, with great descriptions,...
Book Review: DEL RIO by Jane Rosenthal
DEL RIO by Jane Rosenthal Jane Rosenthal joins the small but vital community of authors using fiction to reveal the complexity and heartbreak of the US-Mexico relationship. DEL RIO confronts the issues of human trafficking and migrant labor and delivers a compelling...
Book review: ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE by Louise Penny
ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE by Louise Penny An entry in the Gamache mystery series that doesn't take place in Three Pines? What is the world coming to?? Paris. The premise Armand Gamache is once again head of Homicide for the Sureté de Quebec. He is on vacation in Paris...
Inside my CIA Career: Parting Words
I had a retirement photo opportunity with then-CIA Director John Brennan. He greeted me with a CIA keepsake coin and a firm handshake. We posed for the photographer and chatted for a minute about favorite assignments over my 30 year career. He asked me what I...
Inside my CIA Career: The Point of It All
Before retiring, I took a seminar about transitioning to the private sector. All the students were fellow CIA intelligence officers. At one point, somebody raised a hand and said what everybody was thinking: “I’ve been an intelligence officer my entire professional...
Inside my CIA Career: Variety and the Spice of Life
What did I do? Whenever I’m asked, “What did you do in the CIA?” I’m a bit stuck. There’s no good snappy answer. I did a variety of things, many of which can't be defined in layman's terms. One of the reasons for such a varied career was that I was balancing work and...
Inside my CIA Career: Encounter with a Spyplane
FLYING Several years ago, my husband got his private pilot’s license and we owned a small Piper aircraft. Our son was in kindergarten and promptly fell in love with all things aviation. This rubbed off on me. Our family was soon immersed in flying stories, books about...
Book Review: THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Richard Osman
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Richard Osman What happens when the residents of a bucolic senior living community in England get together to investigate a murder? For starters, one murder becomes . . . many. I’d read so many positive reviews of this book that I was...
Inside my CIA Career: Media Matters
What the heck is OSINT My resume includes this line: OSINT Analyst/Editor, Foreign Broadcast Information Service. Wrote, edited, and briefed analytical conclusions and OSINT reporting content to all levels of inter-and intra-agency audiences. OSINT is shorthand for...
Inside my CIA Career: Secrets of Great Dialogue
Competing Motivations As happened so many times over the course of a 30-year CIA career, I was either a participant or an observer in a dialogue. Not the conversation that happens when you are both talking about the same thing or want the same thing, but a...
Inside my CIA Career: Make it “Actionable”
CIA career During my 30-year CIA career, it was always impressed upon me that we were stewards of the taxpayer’s money. With that in mind, there was effort to make sure the CIA and sister agencies got value for the money when it came to intelligence collection....
Inside my CIA Career: The Moving Picture Show
Thanks to my CIA Career If you’ve read the last few books in the Detective Emilia Cruz police series set in Acapulco, you may have noticed that video plays an important role in providing clues and solving the mystery. In 43 MISSING, the footage from police interviews...
Book Review: True Fiction by Lee Goldberg
TRUE FICTION by Lee Goldberg This outrageously campy thriller is pure escapism. Prepare to suspend disbelief, enjoy a zany premise, and get carried away. The premise Ian Ludlow, author of the he-man soldier of fortune Clint Straker thriller series, is a former TV...
Inside my CIA Career: the Coup Kit
Coups My official resume says this about the 5 years during my CIA career when I was an all-source analyst: Performed all source analysis of geographic topics of intelligence interest in support of US national security, including National Intelligence Estimates Action...
Inside my CIA Career: The Analytic Puzzle
First Job My first position with the Central Intelligence Agency was as a political analyst. The official CIA website describes analysis jobs as: “Collaborative. Problem-solvers. Critical thinkers. These are the qualities needed for CIA analytic positions. The ability...
What I did in the CIA: Glutinous but not Unflavorful
Blame it on the Swedish meatballs Early in my CIA career, I was having lunch in the cafeteria of the Original Headquarters Building (back when it was the only Headquarters building.) My friend Willa was apparently feeling daring that day. She ordered the Swedish...
Book Review: SNOW by John Banville
SNOW by John Banville got a hearty endorsement from several hard-core mystery reader friends and it lived up to expectations in every way except one. It’s a freezing, snowy winter in 1957. Ireland is still a new country. Detective St. John (pronounced Sinjun as he...
The Big Pivot of 2021
The Big Pivot Do you remember the sofa moving scene in Friends? They guys are doing their best, but it’s too big to get up the stairs. Ross keeps yelling “Pivot, pivot” to no avail. That’s 2020. In 2021 we'll turn the corner. Pivot Ross GIF from Pivot GIFs My personal...
Best of 2020: Top 10 Book Reviews from the Mystery Ahead Newsletter
Best of 2020 Yes, 2020 had a silver lining. We all stayed home and read more. Every other Sunday, I fed the collective appetite of fellow mystery lovers with the Mystery Ahead newsletter. Readers enjoy sneak peaks of what I'm writing now AND reviews of books I love...
The Face that Launched 1000 Words
Some authors look for visual cues to help create setting and characters. Most call it research. I call it antiques hunting. THE FACE OF THE GALLIANO CLUB To build the Galliano Club series, I have my grandfather’s account books from when he was City Marshall, as well...
Fiction author asks: Why do we fall in love?
True Story I met my husband at a Memorial Day picnic. After burgers and hot dogs, our host hauled out Trivial Pursuit. Teams were assembled and a fierce no-holds-barred game ensued. To my chagrin, his team won. Nonetheless, when he called a few weeks later, we made a...
New York to Mexico and Back Again
ONCE UPON A TIME My hometown of Rome, New York, was a close-knit community where almost everyone was Italian, Irish, or Polish and a Roman Catholic. Five hours away from New York City and the Statue of Liberty by train, the city was surrounded by dairy farms, with...
Book Review: THUNDERSTRUCK by Erik Larson
Non-fiction author Erik Larsen (DEAD WAKE, THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY, THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE, etc.) writes true crime with the sweep, suspense, and vocabulary of the best fiction authors. THUNDERSTRUCK may not be his best known book but it is the incredible saga...
How to Survive a Pandemic from Polar History’s “Wicked Mate”
I was recently asked if the coronavirus pandemic had changed what readers want from mystery authors. Maybe. Right now, I think readers appreciate a good tale of overcoming the odds. That’s why polar history resonates with me right now. The early exploration of...
Book Review: GRAY GHOST MURDERS by Keith McCafferty
I know nothing about fly fishing and have never been to Montana. Nevertheless, the Sean Stranahan mystery series by Keith McCafferty has me hooked. (Sorry, could not resist.) The series has elements of both the Longmire and Mike Bowditch series, but with a gentle...
Book Review: Dublin Trilogy by Caimh McDonnell
Author Vee James gifted me this book and a tip of the hat to him. THE MAN WITH ONE OF THOSE FACES is the first book in McDonnell’s Dublin Trilogy about the very funny, yet seriously intriguing misadventures of Paul Mulchrone, Brigit Conroy, and Garda detective Bernard...
How to be an Armchair Traveler
I keep waiting for coronavirus to call a time out but, uh, so far . . . no. It's turning me into an armchair traveler. You, too? I have missed museums. Not that I'm a rabid art hound, but museums are a great reason to get up and go somewhere new to refuel my creative...
Announcing the Galliano Club new historical mystery series
What??!! A new historical mystery series? But, but . . . Read on. One of my earliest memories is of my grandfather coming home from Revere Copper and Brass, yelling “Ann!” When my grandmother replied, he inevitably came back with “Huh?” the first sign of the...
Mini Masterclass: How to Write a Mystery Series
Did you ever want to write a mystery series? Have an idea for a character but nothing else? Maybe you need a blueprint for finally getting that mystery series written. True Story When I worked for the CIA, diving into real-life mysteries, I loved reading mysteries...
My Fijian romance and other Unforgettable Taxi Tales
To get in the right mindset for NARCO NOIR, in which Detective Emilia Cruz goes undercover as a taxi driver to catch a killer, friends and I are sharing some outrageously memorable taxi rides. Which of these are you happy to have missed? Related: The True Story Behind...
For Celine, With Love
TRUE STORY On 11 May 1968, when I was 8 years old, I made my First Communion at St. Paul’s Church in Rome NY. My first cousin Celine was next to me, wearing an identical outfit of starched white linen shift and a lace mantilla secured with a satin ribbon tied under...
Mexico, Women, Femicide, Fiction
“Women and glass are always in danger.” – Mexican proverb Imagine if Portland, Maine, or Greenville, South Carolina went missing, simply ebbing away like shadows in sunlight over the course of 14 years. The official count of people missing in Mexico since 2006 is...
Countdown to NARCO NOIR
NARCO NOIR, Detective Emilia Cruz Book 8 will be released on 16 April! Emilia goes undercover as a taxi driver to catch a killer, but a dangerous detour takes her to a movie set and the choice that will change her life forever. Cover reveal Once again, artist Matt...
Author to Author with Bruce Robert Coffin
I met fellow police procedural author Bruce Coffin at the 2019 Killer Nashville conference, where we both won Silver Falchion awards, and have become an avid fan of his John Byron series. His new book WITHIN PLAIN SIGHT comes out this week. Bruce took a minute to...
Book review: Denise Mina’s Still Midnight
STILL MIDNIGHT by Denise Mina is the first book in the Alex Morrow detective series set in Glasgow and it’s a stunner. It’s a superb mix of Ian Rankin’s seedy Scotland from the John Rebus novels, Tana French’s angry female protagonist from THE TRESPASSER, and powerful...
This is Day One
Day One is a digital marketing agency. “This is Day One” is written in neon letters on the wall of their New York City office. I love the double entendre. This is Day One is both a “we're here” announcement and a creative mantra. Day One implies a fresh start. A new...
Things in the Mirror are Closer than they Appear
It was a first and I’m still recovering. I live in a fairly friendly town. So when there was a shoutout for women who work from home to meet for coffee, I went. About 20 gals showed up, none of whom I knew. As we were introducing ourselves, one of them said. “I’ve...
Sisters in Crime Webinar with Carmen Amato Goes Inside the CIA for Authors
November 19, 2019 Mystery author and 30 year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency, Carmen Amato walked mystery and thriller authors through the federal intelligence agency in a webinar for Sisters in Crime. Entitled "Inside the CIA for Mystery and Thriller...
Book review: Finland’s Maria Kallio police series
Detective Maria Kallio is the first female police detective in the Violent Crime and Repeat Offender unit in Espoo, Finland. She is Finland's answer to Detective Emilia Cruz and I love her. SNOW WOMAN is the fourth book in the Maria Kallio 12-book crime fiction series...
Mystery author Lisa Preston: new series, dinner with Twain & tech advice
Fellow mystery author and former cop Lisa Preston stopped by to talk about her new series and share a great protip. 1. Carmen Amato: Lisa, thanks so much for stopping by. We met at the Killer Nashville mystery writer’s conference and discovered that we have a few...
9 Mystery and Thriller Authors Tell All
These 9 friends are all at the top of their game when it comes to fast-paced mystery and thrillers that veer toward the dark side.Check out their original interview link, and what they’ve been up to since appearing on this blog and/or in the Mystery Ahead...
Killer Nashville 2019: An excellent bunch of murderers
He put the cord over my head. It scratched against my neck, heavier than I expected. My heart was beating too fast. The noise buffeted me, my vision a blur . . . Nope, I wasn't strangled, but won the Silver Falchion award for THE ARTIST/EL ARTISTA in the...
The road between the storms
Storm vs lull = success The storm called RUSSIAN MOJITO has ended. The lull has arrived, allowing me to catch my breath and attend to all the housekeeping chores that built up while my brain was whirling with MOJITO. The modern do-it-yourself author has a...
New Release! RUSSIAN MOJITO, Detective Emilia Cruz Book 7
IT'S NEW RELEASE DAY!RUSSIAN MOJITO, Detective Emilia Cruz Book 7 is out now and on sale for Kindle for $0.99!To promote the book, both PACIFIC REAPER and 43 MISSING are also on sale! It's a limited time event, so grab your copies now. RUSSIAN MOJITO is a...
Writing a mystery: 3 essential questions
RUSSIAN MOJITO, Detective Emilia Cruz Book 7, will be released on 6 June. It is undoubtedly the most complex mystery I've ever written. Emilia's whole future is on the line. Mystery writing: the big start Every Emilia Cruz novel has multiple plot lines. My...
Countdown to RUSSIAN MOJITO: Detective Emilia Cruz Book 7
Cue the drum roll!RUSSIAN MOJITO, Detective Emilia Cruz Book 7, will be available soon. Mark your calendar:23 May: Kindle pre-order6 June: Kindle release23 June: Paperback releaseAbout RUSSIAN MOJITORUSSIAN MOJITO takes up where 43 MISSING left off. Emilia...
Book review: AUNTIE POLDI AND THE SICILIAN LIONS
AUNTIE POLDI AND THE SICILIAN LIONS by Mario Giordino is a delicious whodunit, yet for this book review, it defies easy categorization. It’s one part Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri and one part Don Camillo series by Giovanni...
Book Review: le Carre’s A LEGACY OF SPIES
A LEGACY OF SPIES is the long sought-after backstory of le Carre’s first bestseller, THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD (henceforth THE SPY), a slim volume that taught many readers how the Cold War was fought. This week's book review is all about connecting...
Louise Penny’s KINGDOM OF THE BLIND
In Loise Penny's latest Armand Gamache mystery, KINGDOM OF THE BLIND, the Canadian crime fighter has been suspended from his job as head of the Sureté, the top law enforcement agency in Canada’s French-speaking Quebec province. The storyline is a...
Two awards
The first quarter of 2019 has been an exciting time. Two recognitions have come my way, for which I am both surprised and grateful. CrimeMasters of America The Detective Emilia Cruz series won the Poison Cup award from CrimeMasters. I was quite overwhelmed...
Book review: Sherlock Holmes, twice as nice
A KNIFE IN THE FOG and DUST AND SHADOW are both sensational thrillers. The two books have a few things in common, including exceptional historical research, an investigative trio, and a satisfying conclusion, yet each offers an original take on Victorian...
The lost chapter of THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY
My "Simplify" theme for 2019 led to some housekeeping and that in turn led to the discovery of a lost chapter of THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY. Backstory The novel was originally an 800 page (Not. Kidding.) all written from the point of view of the...
Open Letter to 2019
Dear 2019, With the benefit of having lived through your younger brother known as 2018, you will find me a bit changed. Older, wiser, and a bit more cunning. Love, Carmen From 2018, with love Every year, instead of a list of easily-forgotten resolutions,...
The mystery of the disappearing home office
As 2019 approaches, many of us (self included) look to see the progress made over the past year. For many of us (self included) it was a year of transition. We moved to a new house in a new state. The Dream House, in a place with lots of...
Welcome to the opioid crisis
I spent 30 years with the CIA. My official resume says things like “distinguished record of solutions-driven leadership across multiple mission areas,” and “led program responsible for collection, translation, and analysis of breaking events,” and “oversaw work of...
Wounded warriors and the making of AWAKENING MACBETH
My great-uncle Nicky was the second-to-the-youngest of my grandfather’s five brothers. He was missing most of his right index finger. During WWII, while my grandfather turned out copper ship hulls as a foreman at the Revere Copper and Brass rolling mill, Nicky and...
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