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RESEARCH NOTES: BARRACUDA BAY
BARRACUDA BAY started as an election story, inspired by so many elections taking place in 2024. The candidate would be the fictional mayor of Acapulco, Carlota Montoya Perez, running for reelection.
Questions had to be asked.
Was cartel money funding Carlota?
What if the story became a whodunit for someone on her campaign?
What if that someone was a relative and there was a messy family story behind it?
The other driving force behind the book was to put Detective Emilia Cruz on the run with literally nothing—no phone, identification, etc as she’s on the run in a foreign country.
How does she get herself out of the situation and stay alive to fight another day?
ELECTIONS
During the first half of 2024 I watched campaigns in the US, UK, Mexico, and Panama to collect ideas for Carlota’s reelection fight. This was a different process than when I created an election campaign for the character of Lorena Lopez de Betancourt in political thriller THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY.
Lorena was based on Marta Sahagún, the glam but politically tone-deaf wife of former Mexican president Vicente Fox, and I had plenty of magazine interviews and pictures as inspiration.
PHOTO: The start of Claudia Sheinbaum’s campaign for president of Mexico, courtesy peoplesdispatch.org
For fictional Carlota Montoya Perez, I looked to real elections to see what her campaign could borrow from real ones including that of now-Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum.
- Campaign design: colors, slogans, pictures
- The “spin” for each candidate by their own campaign and by the opponent’s
- A candidate’s centerpiece issue
- Reaching voters at the local level
My research into the 2024 election campaigns in the US, UK, Mexico, and Panama also let me identify issues for Carlota’s fictional reelection.
EMILIA ON THE RUN
I wanted to put Emilia in a worst-case scenario situation for the first time in the series, in which she has only her wits to get her through:
Foreign country: The US, specifically the Northern Virginia suburb outside Washington DC
Climate: November, so it’s freezing compared to Acapulco
Losses: Everything including coat, phone, car keys, identification, hotel access, any possibility of safe haven.
ON LOCATION IN THE DC AREA
There was no need for heavy research into the NOVA/DC locations in the worst-case scenario chapters because they were places I knew well:
PHOTO: Reston Town Square at night, courtesy wtop.com
Reston Town Center: a mixed-use development anchoring Reston, Virginia, a planned community and affluent DC suburb. The Town Center boasts multiple restaurants, high-end shopping, office buildings and a luxe Hyatt Hotel.
PHOTO: The Willard Intercontinental, courtesy washington.intercontinental.com
The Willard Intercontinental Hotel: one of Washington DC’s most venerable and historic watering holes, where the rich and famous rub elbows in the Round Robin Bar.
PHOTO: Embassy of Mexico, courtesy embassynvisa.com
The Embassy of Mexico on Constitution Ave: The embassy has a unique façade in which a modern multi-story office complex appears perched over and beside two historic Georgian townhomes. It isn’t far from the White House.
PHOTO: An unmissable historic bar, courtesy brewsandclues.com
The Dubliners: The Irish bar I used to frequent as a new arrival to the DC area, It’s where I learned that sitting at a bar with paper and pen attracted guys like flies to honey. But no, this is not how I met my husband.
“Whatcha writing?”
“A story.”
“Can I be in it?”
“I don’t know. Are you interesting?”