Acapulco has alot to offer: beautiful beaches, water sports, cliff divers, iconic skyscrapers, swimming with the dolphins. Get off the beaten path and you can add gun violence, murder, cops, and drug seizures. All that’s missing is a skycraper that looks like a corkscrew.

Ahem. Let me clarify.

In DIABLO NIGHTS, the third Emilia Cruz novel, Acapulco itself is as mch of a character as Emilia, her partner Franco Silvio, or her lover, Kurt Rucker. The action moves from Kurt’s hotel on Punta Diamante on the city’s far eastern edge, to the cruise ship docks near the old fort of Fuerte San Diego on the west side of the bay. Connecting those two sides of the horse-shaped bay is the wide boulevard named Costera Miguel Aleman. La Costera borders the ocean and is the major artery pumping cars, locals, and tourists around the waterfront.

DIABLO NIGHTS Reshaping the Acapulco skyline

The F&F Tower, downtown Panama City, Panama

All of the picture postcard shots of Acapulco’s downtown area show this road and the tall white skyscrapers that soar along it. In DIABLO NIGHTS, there is one more skyscraper, the fictional Torre Metropolitano. It’s a work in progress and the construction is pivotal.

  “The site of the half-built Torre Metropolitano loomed ahead as the road curved into the eastern side of the bay. When finished, the tower would be another one of Acapulco’s iconic skyscrapers rising from azure ocean, defiant and modern against a backdrop of iron mountains. Its innovative spiral design had been hotly debated in the news last year. Some said it would become Acapulco’s most famous landmark, others argued that the design was inherently unstable. But a consortium of investors had pushed it through.

The building would be 25 stories when done and about half had been erected. Steel and glass cladding rose into the sky, topped by a mammoth yellow crane. The whole structure was partially hidden by temporary construction barriers of corrugated steel. A picture of the Building’s final state was repeated on the barriers, as if miniature Torre Metropolitanos were strolling down the street, interrupted by the royal palms along the avenue.” — DIABLO NIGHTS

Related post: Blame it on Panama

The Torre Metropolitano is modeled after the F&F Tower in Panama City, one of the coolest–and scariest–buildings I’ve ever seen. Why this particular building? Well, you’ll have to read DIABLO NIGHTS to find out!

The Kindle version is out now, with paperback release in August. Happy reading, but if you are afraid of heights, well, don’t say you weren’t warned.

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Acapulco skyline

CARMEN AMATO

Mystery and thriller author. Retired Central Intelligence Agency intel officer. Dog mom to Hazel and Dutch. Recovering Italian handbag addict.

 

Acapulco skyline

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