Writer and podcaster Patrick Greenwood specifically asked about this while taping an episode of his Writers on Espresso podcast, which you can find here:
The full answer to Patrick’s question has two parts.
Lessons from a balky mule
Remember that scene in Gone with the Wind when Rhett Butler abandons Scarlett O’Hara on the road to Tara? Sherman’s troops are burning Atlanta and he’s leaving her on a deserted road in the middle of the night with her frenemy Melanie about to give birth in a cart and the fires of Altanta licking at her skirts.
Scarlett’s mind jumps about, trying to remember what her father called balky mules so she can deliver the ultimate insult.
Reading that scene as a 5th grader, I was INSIDE Scarlett’s head, groping for the worst thing she can say that will sting Rhett Butler to the core. But all she can think of is to slap him and call him a cad.
I wanted to be able to write from inside the character’s head like that.
Channeling a train derailment
Like most writers, I use my own experiences, too.
This includes being in a train derailment in France during college.
One weekend my best friend and I took the overnight train from Paris to Italy. (Thank you, Eurorail pass.)
In the middle of the night, the train began to judder up and down. The sound was a terrifying boom boom boom boom. Luggage rained down from the overhead racks. We were tossed around the cramped compartment. People screamed and panicked.
The boom boom boom was deafening.
Screeching iron and sparks, the train car tilted over. We were flung helplessly against the side. Finally, canted at about a 40 degree angle, the car came to a screeching stop. We scrambled out of the windows into the utter darkness of the French countryside.
Later, we found out that a vehicle had fallen from an overpass onto the tracks right in front of the speeding train. As the engine chewed up metal and rubber, the first half of the train jumped the tracks. The boom boom boom was train wheels bouncing on the wooden ties. The first few cars fell over completely. Several people were killed.
In the inky darkness, we followed the tracks about two miles to the next station, a tiny country stop. A different train eventually came and collected us and we made it to Italy after all.
Years later, I can channel the adrenaline rush and heightened sense of awareness of that event. Those memories help me create the emotional perspective of Detective Emilia Cruz, from a fistfight in CLIFF DIVER, Book 1, to a panicked turn as a stand-in for a famous movie star in NARCO NOIR, Book 8.
And I do it to give each and every reader a deeper experience of what it’s like to be in Emilia’s shoes.
More importantly, CLIFF DIVER introduced me to an amazing community of readers who embrace Emilia in all she stands for: strength when times are tough, hope of better things, holding on when the tide wants to sweep you away, and finding love when you least expect it. They have been truly amazing, sticking with her (and me) through thick and thin over the past 11 years.
Thank you to each and every one of you!
Cliff Diver is available everywhere. Click the cover to see it on Amazon.
In the aftermath of World War II and horror of the Holocaust, the now-forgotten masters of World War II thrillers including Herman Wouk, Ken Follett, and Leon Uris wrote sweeping sagas of lives torn apart by war for an audience that had lived through the violence and uncertainty of it.
I discovered these authors when I was in high school. Their fiction taught me more about the war than any teacher.
As AI churns out recycled fiction and attention spans shrink, it’s worth re-reading these Big Novels. Elegant sweeping sagas, they were written before authors discovered the 3-act formula popularized by television and movie pacing.
Through these classic wartime thrillers, re-learn the hard lessons of WWII at a time when the world seems determined to repeat the mistakes of the past. These masterful authors deliver an experience that lingers long after the last page is turned.
Note: Affiliate links go to author’s page on Amazon.
Now best known for his hefty cathedral series, this British author first gained international acclaim for his riveting WWII spy novels.
Key to Rebecca
A British intelligence officer in Cairo hunts for a wily German spy who is able to blend in with the locals as Rommel pushes inexorably across Northern Africa. The book has everything—urgency of battle, lives hanging in the balance, cat-and-mouse action, love among the ruins, a critical code to transmit instructions to Rommel and a breathlessly gripping climax. Possibly my favorite thriller of all time and the role model for my first thriller, The Hidden light of Mexico City.
Eye of the Needle
A German spy ends up on a tiny British island with a mission to signal German ships, but first he has to neutralize the dysfunctional family that lives there and maintains the lighthouse. The daughter becomes his unwitting foe as she slowly realizes who he is and what is at stake. There’s a scene in which she shoves a screwdriver into a light socket to cut his signaling capability that is so shocking (pun intended) that I’ve remembered it for decades.
LEON URIS
Books by the prolific Leon Uris became iconic movies (Battle Cry starring gravel-voiced heartthrob Aldo Ray, Exodus starring Paul Newman and Sal Mineo.) His WWII novels exposed Nazi atrocities with unflinching courage.
Mila 18
An American woman and a Polish cavalry officer are star-crossed lovers in Warsaw as the German juggernaut rolls into Poland. A Jew, he is banished to the Warsaw ghetto where he’ll eventually lead the uprising, a last desperate stand. Seen through the eyes of a reporter who is determined to get the story out, the book is a tour de force. I’ll always remember the vivid scene in which a drunk explains what is going to happen to Poland, trapped between Germany and Russia, by sawing a ham steak in two. Exactly what happened IRL.
QBVII
The title stands for Queens Bench VII, a courtroom in which a British character modeled on Nazi doctor Josef Mengele is on trial for crimes against humanity. After his political beliefs land him in a Nazi concentration camp, the doctor earned privileges by performing inhumane operations on Jewish prisoners. Years later, back in Britain with a new name, he’s exposed and ends up on trial. Mengele’s real experiments become his in the book, so this is not for the faint of heart. But so much is taken from what came out after the war that the book fairly vibrates with the truth. It became an award-winning mini-series, too.
The iconic saga of the USS Caine, a rusty minesweeper, is seen through the eyes of Willie Keith, a rich boy idling his life away playing piano in a dive bar. Willie joins the Navy, heads to the Pacific aboard the Caine. Captain Queeg of the Caine slowly becomes unhinged. Willie and other officers are tormented by his actions even while wracked by their own rivalries (and the Japanese). When the dam breaks and one of them relieves Queeg of command, he’s charged with mutiny. More comes out at the trial than expected. I saw Charleton Heston give an amazing performance as Queeg on stage at the Kennedy Center years ago, but Humphrey Bogart triumphed in the movie.
The Winds of War & War and Remembrance
An American family is caught up in the war, starting in 1939 when the father is the US naval attaché in Berlin. He is close to President Roosevelt and in the thick of diplomatic maneuverings as world slides towards war before commanding a battleship after Pearl Harbor. Meanwhile, his grown children are each caught up in wartime drama, especially one son who is a civilian in Poland.
Both books became an award-winning mini-series. Over 140 million watched The Winds of War in 1983, a record audience at that time. Who can forget Jane Seymour getting an apple as the cattle car in which she is imprisoned snakes through a village? The first food she’s had in days, Jane eats the apple in a near trance of hunger, core and all.
This week, the Rome Arts Hall of Fame from my hometown sent out their annual call for nominations to previous inductees, including me (Hall of Fame Class of 2019.)
The letter came from Maria Rich, who scribbled a note in the margin of the letter: “I think of you every time I drive down East Dominick.”
She didn’t need to say more for us to share a moment across the miles. (Also it feels amazing when a reader really gets it.) East Dominick Street in Rome, NY, was the inspiration for Hamilton Street in the Galliano Club thrillers (affiliate link).
I was thrilled to think that the imaginary world of the historical fiction Galliano Club thriller books is alive on the real street.
For those who have never traveled to Upstate New York, the area was a bastion of Italian immigration in the early part of the 20th century. Italian immigrants like my grandfather who was also a deputy sheriff of Oneida County, sweated in the mills and factories that built so much of America’s industrial infrastructure. For decades, 10% of all copper used in American manufacturing came from Rome, much of it processed in the Revere Copper and Brass Rolling Mill on Dominick St.
How did your 2023 go? Mine went something like this.
High
I won the 2023 Silver Falchion award for Best Historical at the Killer Nashville International Writer’s Conference this year. The award banquet was Saturday evening, after 2.5 days of non-stop seminars, workshops, serious discussion and working lunches. So far I’d given a talk on Digital Deception and hosted the Author Speed Dating event. My name was fairly well known at that point.
When Master of Ceremonies Clay Stafford read my name as the winner in that category, the room erupted in cheers so loud that no one heard him read the title of the winning book, MURDER AT THE GALLIANO CLUB.
She’d constantly say how excited she was to read the books when they were finally published. But dementia has claimed her now and she is no longer able to read nor recall those conversations.
Always look for the details that can prompt forward motion.
Can we look over the past 12 months and recognize the moments that set us in a new direction? A decision that led to something fresh and unexpected?
Did it lead us in the right direction?
Sometimes these moments are lost in the clutter of everyday life. Or they happened so gradually that it seems like the new direction took shape naturally, without any conscious effort.
Most importantly, can we embrace the positive turning point and replicate it?Can we recognize the negative turning point and avoid another?
My first turning point in 2023came when I discovered that the blogging platform Medium.com is an amazing repository of marketing ideas. While this content is not specific to mystery authors, I can adapt this wealth of ideas from Australian writer Tim Denning, Alex Llull from The Steal Club newsletter, and Sharon Woodhouse, owner of the Conspire Creative agency, to name just a few.
Adopting a student mindset, I hope to expand my author business with fresh ideas from those experts and others in 2024.
An aside re Medium.com. I initially saw it as another stream of writing income. But after a few weeks, I realized that gaining traction there would take up too much time and energy away from fiction. No one is asking for my writing advice on Medium. They are, however, emailing to ask when the next Detective Emilia Cruz novel comes out.
In 2023, a second turning point was taking advantage of local sales opportunities. For the first time, I sold books at the Southern Festival of Books and at a fall craft market in my town. The latter event led to a partnership with 3 other small business owners to create the Literary Crime Club, a collection of exclusive quarterly soirées.
Each ticketed evening event will offer a unique literary activity plus snacks and adult beverages, as well as a thoughtful takeaway gift and a few surprises like raffles. Our first event of 2024 will be a Literary Scavenger Hunt!
So cast your mind back through 2023
Congratulate yourself on the highs and let go of the lows.
Find the turning points.
Learn from both the positive and negative.
Identify the actionable.
Grow the good.
Top Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay | Literary Crime Club image copyright Lebanon Sisterhood. May not be used without permission.
The topic at hand was a renewed embrace of pen and paper, specifically journals of all kinds. Instead of going out of business when everyone went digital, Smythson is seeing “an increase in the number of younger customers who are interested in tangible things that you can keep.”
Experience and Keepsake
People want to keep real records, to have a tactile experience with the written word. Goidadin said that “With notebooks – and the world of paper in particular – there is a sort of magic alchemy (my empasis) that happens when someone takes a handmade object and then starts putting notes in it. We have many customers, old and young, who send us photographs of the rows of notebooks and diaries that they have. They keep them as archives of their lives.”
According to Goidadin, diaries and journals have become keepsake gifts. “There’s something very special about giving a notebook or a diary to someone of any age. They’re gorgeous gifts that you know someone would use but many people buy them for themselves, especially at this time of year.”
I think this trend is going to grow, for the following reasons:
Emotional Connection and Reflection
Keepsake journals help us connect with emotions and experiences, and keep them from vanishing amid the digital clutter. People are seeking deliberate and meaningful ways to process their thoughts. Meditation is gaining in popularity with apps like Calm and Headspace. In the same vein, keepsake journals provide a dedicated space for introspection.
Personalized Storytelling
How we relate to events, food, books, and travel differ from person to person. We’re drawn to the idea of capturing that uniqueness by crafting our own narratives and personal stories. Paper journals can be customized with not only pen and ink but with photos, ticket stubs, and the odds and ends we collect along the way.
Aesthetic Appeal
There’s something alluring about a beautiful journal with blank pages waiting to be filled in, especially if it has prompts to help us focus our thoughts. As we increasingly value the tangible and tactile experience of writing, a well made journal isn’t just a functional item but a beautiful display that says more about us than a coffee table book.
Bottom line, I think Mr. Goidadin must know what he’s talking about. At $285.00, Smythson’s 2024 leather-bound journal is already out of stock! (I prefer a Moleskine weekly planner, anyway. So there.)
Keepsake reading journal
At the much more reasonable price of $17.99, the Mystery Ahead book journal is also a keepsake. This unique oversized 250-page reading journal is designed to take you around the world, one mystery book at a time.
Inside you’ll find
Introductions and fun facts about 7 world regions
250 pages with large, easy-to-read print
32 mini-reviews of the best mystery series from around the world
80+ pages with easy prompts to write your own reviews
Annual reading log with space for 100 entries
Quotes and reflections on the reading life
It’s the perfect keepsake reading companion. Get it for book club friends, grandparents, teachers, armchair travelers and anyone else who wants to keep a record—or an archive as Mr. Goidadin would say—of their reading life.
Many fiction authors, self included, write longhand first. The act of putting pen to paper creates a connection between thoughts and letters to form words that the rushing demand of typing does not.
One of a dozen notebooks I filled writing THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY.
Once I hit “Publish” on this post, I’ll start channeling Pearl S. Buck by putting pen to paper to scratch out the next Detective Emilia Cruz mystery.
In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write.- Pearl S. Buck
When I was 11, I made a nutcracker for my mother for Christmas.
As a child, I was entranced by Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. I’d never seen a real nutcracker but loved the music and a glimpse into a faraway place so different from my hometown of Rome, New York.
That homemade nutcracker is mine now, gracing the mantel every Christmas along with infinitely fancier and more expensive nutcrackers from travels in Austria and Germany. Yet he’s always the centerpiece of the display, not only for nostalgic reasons but because he represents a challenge met and a refusal to back away from a goal.
As I had no money, a traditional nutcracker was far out of reach even if there had been a store in my hometown that sold them (not an Italian thing).
Figuring out how to make one wasn’t easy. I did, however, have some resources:
My grandfather’s workbench in the basement,
His collection of random cans of paint (remind me to tell you about the year he painted the picnic table a violent shade of orchid),
Access to household stuff, and
A vivid imagination.
I didn’t have the skill or equipment to make a traditional nutcracker but was willing to adapt to get close. Instead of a traditional figure with a belted waist, mine is made from straight pieces of lumber I convinced my grandfather to cut from a template I made.
A square block of wood is sandwiched between the two flanks, with space for the lever that forms the “jaws” to crack the nuts, affixed by a long nail running from shoulder to shoulder with the lever threaded through it. A marvel of engineering that actually works.
He wears the color of paint from those random cans, including the eye-popping purple from the previous summer’s picnic table. The gold and silver paint came from my brother’s model car hobby.
I repurposed ordinary things to create the design. His nose is a One-a-Day vitamin (still intact after 50+ years), his buttons are pastina pasta painted silver–missing a few now–and his beard and hair are scraps of fabric.
IMHO he looks a little bit like Luigi Mario 🙂
As I look back, there’s a big lesson. Adapt. Repurpose. Complete.
I’ll bet there are moments in the past that shaped the person you are now.
It doesn’t have to be an earth-shaking moment. Did you solve a problem? Take on a challenge? Achieve something unexpected?
The end of the year is a good time to reflect on those moments and let yourself be inspired anew by the positives.
It’s time to celebrate! Shepherd.com is your new go-to book recommendation wonderland.
Shepherd.com, is a new(ish) platform to find books. It’s considerably more interesting than Goodreads and has fewer trolls, too.
What makes Shepherd so different is the vast number of recommendations that link similar books, plus a clean and easy to use interface.
Shepherd has a unique take on recommendations. Select authors are invited to recommend books similar to their own, both to give authors visibility but also to group “like with like” for the reader.
Most recently, Shepherd invited me to write about my 3 favorite reads of 2023. It was very hard to narrow down the list, but ultimately I chose books featuring strong female investigators. If you enjoy the Detective Emilia Cruz books, you’ll want to read these books, too.
Read my favorites page here and surf around Shepherd. I think you’ll find it refreshingly different and reader-friendly.
>> You can also read my list of Thrillers set in exotic locations on Shepherd.
Featured image of woman in desert by hudson-hintze-via-unsplash
Every year, I calculate which books in the Mystery Ahead newsletter were most popular with readers. The top books of 2023 were clicked on the most out of the 75 books featured in the newsletter this year.
One of my books claimed the top spot (not always the case!) followed by 2 sensational mysteries that are each part of a series but can be read as standalone novels.
Without further intro, here are the top 3 books Mystery Ahead readers loved this year. (All make great holiday gifts 🙂
In 1926, thanks to Prohibition, it’s hard to find a beer in Lido, New York. But trouble is always on tap at the Galliano Club in this explosive start to the riveting Prohibition-era historical fiction crime series.
Winner, 2023 Silver Falchion Award for Best Historical
Social hub for the Italian immigrant community, the Galliano Club serves bootleg beer and Luca Lombardo’s signature sandwiches to workers from the city’s copper mills. The club means everything to Luca, who arrived in Lido with nothing left to lose.
He’ll do whatever it takes to keep the club afloat, even staying silent about a murder in the alley behind the building.
From her second-floor window, Ruth Cross witnessed the murder, but a scandalous past keeps her quiet.
Could gangster Benny Rotolo be involved? Run out of Chicago by Al Capone, he fled to Lido with a gun in his pocket and plans to establish his own bootlegging empire. He wants to turn the Galliano Club into his private speakeasy.
It’s hard to review my own books so here’s what Jim Nesbitt, author of the Ed Earl Burch series, had to say:
The book opens with what should be an un-adulterated moment of triumph for the working stiffs crowding the club and their cross-town Polish co-workers at the Lido Premium Copper and Brass Rolling Mill . . . In walks Jimmy Zambrano, mill foreman, shaking hands like a politician. He jumps up on the table to deliver a message from the bosses. The deal was done, the men would get their bonus money. But not all at once. It would be paid out across three days, in alphabetical order.
An uproar ensues . . . Cooler heads prevail and help Zambrano sell the payout schedule, including Luca Lombardo, [Vito] Spinelli’s right-hand man and club manager.
The party cranks back up and keeps rolling until closing time.
Less than an hour later, Lombardo steps outside the back of the club and finds Zambrano’s body partially stuffed under the frame of Vito Spinelli’s Packard. The dead foreman has been garroted with copper wire that bit deeply into his neck.
That shifts the story into overdrive. Murder, blackmail, rum-running, intrigue and double-crossing treachery introduce a cascade of characters, including crooked Irish cops, a Chicago fugitive from Al Capone’s gunsels, a larcenous blue-blood wannabe mill accountant, a fallen Broadway chorus girl with a horrible secret and a vivacious Irish bank employee who steals Lombardo’s heart.
Splicing this all together is Amato’s knowing eye for detail and intuitive feel for the temper of the times, the class divisions and the clannishness of immigrant communities struggling to make it in America.
Earning more than Welcome to Stockholm, Sweden and the outstanding Annika Bengtzon series! I actually picked up this book because of the very cool cover and was immediately hooked, so much so that I found all the rest of the books in the series and absolutely devoured them.
Annika Bengtzon is an investigative reporter for Sweden’s #1 tabloid newspaper. She is a young mom with two kids, a faithless husband (who gets his comeuppance later in the series) and a big load of emotional baggage from having been trapped in a tunnel with a murderer on her last assignment.
Her new assignment is a retrospective on a 20-year-old terror attack on a Swedish air force base near the Arctic Circle. No one was ever found guilty. She heads up there to interview a local journalist who claims to have new information. When she gets there, he’s dead.
More murders follow, including that of a teen who might have seen the man who killed the journalist. Each murder is accompanied by a strange snippet of an essay, which eventually leads Annika to the Communist student clubs that flourished in Sweden in the 1960’s and 70’s. Some of her information comes from Q, the head of Sweden’s national crime squad, a shadowy figure who feeds her tidbits in exchange for what she’s found out.
What I loved about this series is Annika’s deep point of view and the ongoing sense of the character’s life from one book to the next. We are really inside her head, experiencing the highs and (mostly) lows of the investigation, newsroom politics, and her disintegrating marriage. Other points of view function as a supporting cast, including husband Thomas whom we love to hate, and perpetually harried editor Anders. Later in the series, author Marklund introduces a female cop who becomes both rival and friend, and her point of view becomes important as well.
I really got caught up in the series, in which crimes and characters from one book bleed into the next, almost as if Marklund wrote one enormous tome, then cut it into manageable books. You also get a great view of life in Sweden and its social conventions and norms, not to mention the biting cold when the action moves to the Arctic Circle.
For whatever reason, the series is misnumbered on Amazon and the book covers are not cohesive. But don’t let that stop you from enjoying this best-selling Swedish series, which was made into the Swedish-language television show Annika Bengtzon Crime Reporter (Not to be confused with Annika, starring Nicola Walker as head of a UK Marine Homicide Unit). It is exceptional. https://geni.us/redwolf
Mystery fans can’t get enough of Agatha Christie’s fussy Belgian detective (cue Kenneth Branagh, please!) and THE MONOGRAM MURDERS shows why. The new Hercule Poirot books by Sophie Hannah are spot-on, capturing the style and personality of the original books right down to Poirot’s tendency to speak of himself in the third person, identify the most obscure clues and solve multi-villain crimes.
Three people are found dead in a swank London hotel. They have all been poisoned. Two women and a man are each found in their respective hotel room, prone body positioned toward the door, and a monogrammed cufflink in the mouth.
What do the initials PIJ stand for?
Edward Catchpool, a young Scotland Yard detective, is assigned to the case. Poirot, who is taking a sabbatical of sorts by staying in the same boarding house, accompanies Catchpool to the scene of the crime. Catchpool, who deals with an inner struggle regarding the bodies of the dead, becomes Poirot’s foil and sounding board. Poirot delights in the role of teacher, making many clever (and correct IMHO) observations about human nature as they investigate.
The crime traces back to an old scandal in little village. As in so many Poirot tales, the final denouement reveals complex connections. Red herrings are ultimately complicit in the crime. The ending was impossible to guess! Only Poirot or an encyclopedia would know the tiny details that lead to certain supporting conclusions.
You almost need to graph out all the twists and turns to make sure you didn’t miss anything.
I loved the way the novel set up the crime, with clues that appear impossible to reconcile. What happened to the room service food? How did the killer escape? Why was one victim’s room key hidden behind a loose tile? Why did the waiter lie? The crime is tantalizing and the pages flew by.
Yet after so much brilliance, the last quarter of the novel moves at a glacial pace, with chunky dialogue in which the crime is picked apart and Poirot explains far too many extraneous bits of investigative genius.
But if you love Agatha Christie, Poirot’s return is “can’t miss” reading. So far there are 5 Poirot mysteries by Sophie Hannah, all incredible brainteasers like THE MONOGRAM MURDERS.
When it comes to online shopping, it can be hard to find that unique something special for someone special. But I’ve done the hard part, scrolling and sifting to find gifts for the mystery book lover in your life.
With winds of up to 165 mph, Category 5 Hurricane Otis tore through Acapulco in late October, leaving a trail of unprecedented devastation.
It strengthened so quickly there was little time to prepare for the strongest storm to ever hit Mexico’s Pacific coast. In just a few hours, Otis left Acapulco in shambles, changing the iconic tourist destination into a water-logged war zone. At last count, 39 people are dead.
Before the storm, Acapulco was already staggering under the weight of one of the highest homicide rates in the Western Hemisphere, high poverty, and a sagging tourism industry.
Can it recover from Hurricane Otis?
Maybe the bigger question is what will the region’s powerful organized crime cartels do now?
I chose Acapulco as the setting for the series for three reasons:
Stunning backdrop:Acapulco is undeniably one of the most beautiful places on earth, with its horseshoe-shaped bay and mountain backdrop.
Familiarity: Most readers instantly recognize the name of the city. It’s been an iconic destination for generations.
Have vs have-nots:I knew that social and economic factors could be a source of tension (something you always want to build in a mystery) for the character of Emilia Cruz.
The series explores the two faces of Acapulco; the one that tourists see made up of glittering water, white skyscrapers, luxury hotels and fabulous nightclubs. Then there’s the other face of Acapulco–street gangs, endemic poverty, crooked cops. The port is a drop zone for incoming shipments of fentanyl precursors from China and a drug distribution route into the United States.
The Detective Emilia Cruz series doesn’t flinch when addressing the impact of organized crime in Acapulco including missing persons, cartel rivalries, and widespread official corruption.
Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series set in Acapulco, books 1-8
Sometimes the series can be a little too authentic, but I’m following the old adage of write what you know.
The picture-postcard row of iconic white beachfront skyscrapers were flayed; their skeletal framework exposed after walls and windows were torn away. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador lamented the loss of every electrical pole. The main highway along the Pacific coast was battered. The Acapulco airport closed. The Mexican National Guard is there now. and about 10,000 members of the military have been sent to help.
An initial estimate put total losses at $15 billion, according to the Reuters report. Yes, billions.
The famed view of Acapulco’s skyline around the bay, before Hurricane Otis.
The aftermath (and opportunities) for organized crime
The aftermath of Hurricane Otis almost certainly will provide violent plot lines for the Detective Emilia Cruz series.
Organized crime has a history of exploiting vulnerabilities and crises. The aftermath of Hurricane Otis is unlikely to be the exception.
Here’s how criminal entities could use the chaos and destruction left by the hurricane to extend control:
Disrupt Law Enforcement
As military and law enforcement prioritizes disaster response and recovery, organized crime elements will be working overtime to reestablish their own supply routes and communication links. The two opposing forces will be after the same resources in short supply, potentially leading to violent clashes when the city can least afford it. Criminal alliances may shift as deals are made to oppose law enforcement and access supplies.
Exploit New Vulnerabilities
Despite the glitz of Acapulco’s waterfront, the state of Guerrero (where Acapulco is located) is Mexico’s second poorest. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-poorest-states-in-mexico.html
Neighborhoods that were already home to grinding poverty and rival street gangs are now even more ripe for exploitation. Organized crime organizations, flush with money from drug sales, extortion, kidnappings and other illegal operations, can extend their territory and influence by offering financial support. They may offer aid in exchange for protection, cooperation, and information.
Recruit
The destruction of so many hotels and residences mean thousands are without shelter in Acapulco. Cartels can infiltrate these displaced communities, offering security and services that the government or private charities don’t provide. New members join because they see the government as ineffective, understand that working for a cartel means their family can eat, or need the sense of belonging offered as a way out of the chaos. Basically, by offering economic incentives or promises of protection, organized crime groups can swell their ranks during times of crisis. They might use these communities as cover for their operations, too.
Corruption and Infiltration
The uncertainty following a hurricane can provide an opportunity for cartels to corrupt local officials or even infiltrate emergency response organizations. This allows them to manipulate relief efforts to their advantage and further their control and potentially even seize control of vital resources such as food, water, and medicine. By controlling distribution, they can manipulate and exert influence, possibly even making deals with officials to allow vital resources to get through to populations in dire straits in return for favors, influence, territorial access, the proverbial blind eye, etc.
Exploit Rebuilding
As Acapulco rebuilds in the hurricane’s aftermath, cartels will want to influence construction and development projects. By controlling contracts and decisions related to reconstruction, they can launder money, invest in legal businesses, and expand their economic assets. The construction business is a known vehicle for money laundering and it will be interesting to see how, when and to whom such contracts to rebuild are awarded.
Bottom line
The factors that led to Acapulco’s high poverty, homicide and violent crime rate will all intensify in the aftermath of Hurricane Otis. Organized crime will seek to exploit the situation and will probably be successful, depending on the government’s effectiveness in restoring services and supporting the city.
It’s crucial for the Mexican government and international organizations to provide swift and effective disaster relief, enhance security measures, and address the socioeconomic factors that make communities susceptible to cartel influence.
Unfortunately, with claims that the destruction is being overestimated by his political rivals, President López Obrador is already being accused of gaslighting the public.
New favorite series alert! Sheriff Ty Dawson solves murder and corruption cases in must-read police procedural RECKONING by Baron Birtcher.
Dawson joins Walt Longmire and Cork O’Connor as lawmen whose investigations are driven by a personal code of honor and the strength it takes to live and prosper in rural places. RECKONING is the long-awaited next book in Baron Birtcher’s police procedural series that takes place in Oregon in the 1970’s.
With author Baron Birtcher at the Killer Nashville international writer’s conference.
A rancher as well as a lawman, the suspicious death of a city cop in an abandoned resort puts Dawson at odds with power players in Portland. Meanwhile, a federal agency attempts to block a fellow rancher’s access to water. Both high-velocity issues take Dawson down roads littered with deception and false friends.
As the two investigations converge, Dawson finds himself practicing shuttle diplomacy, yet cannot trust anyone at the table.
The story moves briskly, propelled by crackling dialogue and descriptions that engage every one of the reader’s senses. More than any other writer I’ve read, Birtcher delivers a powerful sense of smell; it’s uncanny how this draws the reader into the scene.
There’s more corruption in 1970’s Oregon than you expect, and RECKONING delivers multiple shades of gray when it comes to those looking to grab what they can get, including a couple of really grasping cops you can’t wait for Dawson to outsmart.
Like Longmire and O’Connor, Dawson cannot prevent bad things from happening, but he can coax justice out of hiding.
Evocative writing, a human-sized hero, and a well-told story full of intrigue.
Now and then, you stumble across a series that is simply captivating and you have to inhale one book right after the other.
The DCI Harry Grimm series set in the Yorkshire dales, is that kind of addictive series. GRIMM UP NORTH is the first and a terrific introduction to the character as well as the place.
Harry Grimm’s face was rearranged by an IED in Afghanistan when he was an elite British paratrooper. Years later, he’s a senior detective in Bristol, his hometown, handling investigations his own way. Not only is he a bit heavy-handed, he’s bent on showing every criminal he comes across a photograph of his father who 20 years ago killed Harry’s mother and messed up his baby brother. The dad was never caught but Harry’s determined to bring him to justice any way he can.
Irritated by his latest escapade, Harry’s boss bundles him north temporarily to Wensleydale, land of All Creatures Great and Small and Last of the Summer Wine. Culture shock ensues.
Part of the magic of the series is seeing the undulating rural landscape through Harry’s eyes.
Photo by Illiya Vjestica on Unsplash
His first task is to deal with reports of a missing teen girl. Of course a body turns up, half submerged in a lake popular for nighttime swimming. But the body is not the girl.
It’s up to Harry to find the connections and expose the liars, of which there are many, all while getting to know his new team and come to grips with the fact he could be stuck in the hinterlands for an extended period.
The descriptions of the landscape are so evocative, you’ll feel almost there. All the books primarily focus on the central crime, without too many distractions. While Harry’s family situation is a running subplot through this book and the ones to come, it’s not a looming presence. As a result, the books move fairly quickly, punctuated by strong dialogue, expertly drawn characters, and Harry’s growing attachment to the dales.
Highly recommended. Get GRIMM UP NORTH and all the Harry Grimm books on Amazon.
If you want more Yorkshire landscape, check out the latest film adaptation of All Creatures Great and Small starring Samuel West and Nicholas Ralph as vets Siegfried Farnan and James Herriot. The series has been on PBS, with the 4th season coming in January. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/shows/all-creatures-great-and-small/
CIA veteran Carmen Amato is the award-winning author of the Detective Emilia Cruz police series, the Galliano Club historical fiction thrillers and standalone suspense.
As well as writing thrillers like the Detective Emilia Cruz series set in Acapulco, I love reading and watching noir thrillers set in unexpected places. When I needed down time… Read more: The 3 Best Noir Shows on Netflix Right Now
