May 30, 2023 | #booknews
Eighty years ago, a dead British naval officer named Bill Martin washed up on a Spanish beach. He was a landing craft expert with a fiancée named Pam. They’d gone to the theater in London a few days before his plane crashed in the Atlantic with no survivors.
Based on the letters in a briefcase tethered to his waist, Martin had been carrying secret orders to a British general in North Africa.
The letters wound up in the hands of supposedly neutral Spanish authorities who shared them with representatives of Hitler’s Nazi government. Photographs of the letters were rushed to Berlin.
In this way, Hitler learned that the Allies planned to attack via Greece and the Balkans, with a false feint at Sicily and a minor diversion in Sardinia. Reports from other sources soon trickled in, verifying the Allied plan for Greece.
In response, Hitler fortified forces there rather than Sicily.
Fished in
Bill Martin never existed.
He wasn’t a naval officer. He didn’t have a fiancée named Pam. He never went to the theater in London.
The body that washed ashore in Spain with top secret information was the product of Operation Mincemeat, an intelligence operation designed to trick Germany into diverting military forces away from Sicily before the Allied invasion of the Italian island in July 1943.
The ruse worked.
Thousands of lives were saved when US and UK forces landed on the beaches of the Mediterranean island. Although the remaining German troops fought hard, the Allies successfully took Sicily and drove north up the boot of Italy. The Germans conducted a running retreat but the Italian army collapsed, taking Mussolini and the Pact of Steel between Rome and Berlin with it.
Operation Mincemeat
The body that became Bill Martin was that of Glyndwr Michael, a Welsh vagrant who’d died of accidental phosphorus poisoning. Michael’s body was preserved in a morgue, then dressed in a naval uniform, carried in a special capsule aboard a British submarine, and deposited on the Spanish coast at Huelva.
It was a daring and tricky concept that took months of painstaking research and preparation. The questions the planners faced were daunting.
For example, what if a good Spanish pathologist correctly determined the body had been dead for far longer than the date on the theater ticket stub? What if the operation was leaked and Hitler knew to expect a ruse? What if German spies inside Britain discovered that Bill Martin was a fake? If the letters were labelled as fake because London didn’t seem worried they were missing?
And so on.
How did they carry off such a stunning deception?
Attention to detail
Knowing that the Germans had eyes everywhere, Operation Mincemeat planners created and backstopped Bill Martin’s entire life. From birth certificate to Pam’s engagement ring, every detail had to hold up to the most diligent scrutiny. It was the ultimate CYA effort.
One unsupported fact and everything about Bill Martin, including the letters, would be suspect.
Authoritative voices
The more a lie is repeated by trusted voices, the more believable it becomes.
A key British double agent known as Agent Garbo was highly regarded by Berlin. Planners there thought he was running a network in spies inside England but each spy was a complete fiction; another amazing World War II deception.
His British handler instructed Garbo to inform his German handler that a plane with an important courier had gone down and that London was panicking. Garbo’s authoritative voice created a self-reinforcing echo chamber that “verified” the fake battle plan.
Know your audience
Thanks to ULTRA intercepts of German communications, the British had a significant amount of information on both Spanish and German officials in Spain. In part, this prompted the port of Huelva to be the drop zone, because the German representative there could be counted upon to take prompt action.
Bill Martin’s details could be primed to cater to these officials. For example, the names dropped in the letters had to be recognized in Berlin.
From Spain’s rocky status as a neutral, to the German High Command’s reluctance to challenge Hitler’s war planning, it was essential to understand how different actors would perceive the situation and cater to their motivations.
The lesson for us
Besides being a brilliant World War II deception that saved lives, Operation Mincemeat, is a universal lesson in what makes deception “stick.”
This includes getting the details right, reinforcing the lie with authoritative voices, and catering to the intended recipient’s weaknesses, vanities, vulnerabilities, beliefs and habits.
As in Operation Mincemeat, deception is often intended to make you take action.
Look around. These “best practices” in fomenting and perpetuating deception are still in use today.
This post is the first in my new #deception101 series in which I take a 360 look at deception, from the perspective of being both a mystery author a an ex-CIA intel officer.
Intrigued? Leave a comment!
For more, get OPERATION MINCEMEAT by Ben Macintyre
May 18, 2023 | #booknews
I took multiple polygraph tests during my 30-year career as an intelligence officer with the CIA. The theory behind the poly is that basic bodily functions (breathing, heart rate, etc) react if you lie.
Every test followed the same procedure. I sat in a comfortable chair, got hooked up to the machine, and answered all the examiner’s questions with a simple yes or no.
The test makes you dig into your subconscious to determine why you react to certain questions. You never know if you are really reacting or if the examiner is trying to psyche you out for reasons you don’t know.
Inevitably stressful.
Here’s a protip: Never drink coffee before taking a polygraph test. You don’t want to feel any more jittery than you already do or make your heart race for no other reason than a morning latte. No bathroom break, either.
Without so much as a molecule of caffeine, I blearily stumbled into my first polygraph test, the one that would determine if I was honest enough to be offered a job at CIA.
The chair was a giant cushy recliner. The polygraph instrument was a cross between a suitcase and an electrocardiogram machine.
After the first round of questions, the examiner left the room (normal procedure) leaving me hooked up and unable to get out of the recliner. There was a two-way mirror so somebody was watching me.
Meh. I closed my eyes.
The examiner woke me up about 20 minutes later.
I passed.
Years later, I yawned during a test. The examiner barked, “Why did you do that?”
“I’m tired,” I said truthfully. “I haven’t had any coffee today.”
After I passed, he told me that yawning is a technique to defeat the machine.
On to Aldrich Ames
Arrested in February 1994, Aldrich “Rick” Ames was a career CIA officer who spied for Moscow, selling out a raft of important agents helping the US understand the threat from a nuclear-powered Soviet Union. No ideological saint here; Ames sold secrets to support his drinking habit, lavish lifestyle and newish Colombian wife.
Aldrich Ames mugshot, Feb 1994. Source: FBI.gov
He was a “mole,” a spy within his own intelligence service. Currently serving a lifetime sentence for treason and fraud, he is responsible for the deaths of good people. Read the FBI report on him:
I am not impartial. I hope Ames is lonely and dejected and his prison food is noxious.
The years-long hunt for a traitor inside CIA was documented in CIRCLE OF TREASON by CIA officers Sandra Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille. I highly recommend it.
The point which I am taking too long to make is that Aldrich Ames was polygraphed as a possible suspect during the hunt. He passed. Twice.
When asked about his inexplicable wealth, he claimed that his money came from his wealthy in-laws, who were giving him a “free ride.” His claim was fact-checked, and yes, his in-laws were rich.
When asked about foreign contacts, “Rick explained that he had been introduced to numerous people in Colombia when he and his wife visited her family. He added that he had no idea whether any of them were employed by Colombian security services, and suggested to the polygrapher that this might explain his reaction to the question. The polygrapher accepted this explanation.”
He never defeated the polygraph machine, he defeated the examiners.
Interestingly, Ames was dumbfounded when he was finally arrested. He was sure he had outsmarted the mole hunters.
AI as lie detector
Artificial Intelligence (AI) seems to be able to do everything from coding a website to drive a car and write a novel. (I’m investing as soon as it can do laundry and clean toilets)
It can spot deception, too.
Lemonade Insurance depends on its “AI Jim” claims bot to spot fraud. The company’s blog tells how AI Jim flagged a fraudster who submitted multiple claims using fake accounts and even disguises. “AI Jim caught him red handed” and information was turned over to law enforcement. https://www.lemonade.com/blog/the-sixth-sense/
According to researchers in Israel, a new technology that measures “the movement of facial muscles is 73% accurate at detecting when a person is telling a lie.” https://neurosciencenews.com/lie-detection-neurotech-19679/
The technology assesses the tiny involuntary twitches that LIESPOTTING author and expert Pamela Meyer calls “emotional leakage.” She writes “The problem (for liars, anyway) is that much of the time we can’t anticipate our feelings—our emotions catch us by surprise.”
What about voices assessed by AI? Changes in tone, inflection, speed of speech, etc. All these minute vocal changes can be giveaways, too.
IMHO
If the counterintelligence team hunting for a mole inside CIA had had AI lie detection tools back then, they almost certainly would have identified Ames as the mole long before his arrest in 1994. Ames wouldn’t be able to control his “emotional leakage.” That would be enough to intensify interest in him and reassess his polygraph tests.
Moreover, the team could have narrowed the scope of the hunt sooner, too, as other suspects were crossed off the list more swiftly.
Last words
In the future, will AI lie detection be so reliable that it has the final say, instead of a human as was the case when Ames passed his polygraphs?
That could be a slippery slope.
As AI deception detection tools go mainstream, I hope we treat them just as that—tools. We can’t become wholly dependent on them. Let’s not surrender the human critical thinking skills that ultimately caught traitor and spy Aldrich Ames.
May 8, 2023 | #authorlife, #truestory
As fallout over the firing of Fox New anchor Tucker Carlson and CNN’s Don Lemon continues to percolate, I recall the Cold War techniques to decode the news used by the Central Intelligence Agency.
The CIA was never solely about spies meeting in dark alleys. Consider the technical side—from spy planes to listening devices—where I spent the majority of my 30-year career.
But to learn how to decode the news, you have to look at OSINT. That’s shorthand for intelligence gleaned from openly available sources.
First, some background
Open source intelligence collection and analysis got its start in 1941 before Pearl Harbor when the Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service was created to monitor Axis short-wave radio transmissions and analyze implications.
The new organization, known unofficially as “the Screwball Division,” recruited top linguists, engineers and social scientists. An early headquarters was TEMPO Y, one of the war-time temporary buildings erected on the Mall in Washington DC.
After the war, the renamed Foreign Broadcast Information Service–later the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service (FBIS)–was folded into the newly-formed CIA in 1947.
During the Cold War, FBIS primarily focused on state-controlled media in the Soviet Union, East Europe, China, North Korea, Cuba, and other “closed” countries. Its flagship product was the Daily Report, a daily collection of critical translations for each country or region. A news magazine called Trends, came out weekly.
A media analyst for FBIS
Early in my CIA career, I got the chance to write for Trends about messages hidden in state-controlled Chinese media.
During the Cold War, critical messages were hidden in plain sight in the news coming out of communist countries. News for the domestic audience could be different (remember, there was little other information getting to folks inside the country) than what was broadcast to the foreign audience.
If you dug into the content, and knew who mattered in their media organizations—the state-controlled media equivalents of Don and Tucker–you could essentially decode the message.
If certain buzzwords appeared in an official briefing or news outlet known to be a leadership mouthpiece, it carried certain significance. On the other hand, it they were published in something further from the seat of power, say in a Chinese-owned Hong Kong newspaper prior to the takeover, it was more likely to be testing the waters.
Some of those buzzwords are still around. If a Chinese media outlet refers to “sovereignty,” they’re talking about Taiwan with an implicit warning that no one declare it independent or try to defend it.
Talking OSINT at a DoD event in the late 1980s, a time also known as the Era of Big Glasses.
Beijing’s new foreign minister, Qin Gang, recently told US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns that US-China relations needed to “stabilize” after a series of Washington’s “erroneous words and deeds.”
“The agenda of dialogue and cooperation agreed by the two sides has been disrupted, and the relationship between the two countries has once again encountered cold ice.” https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-imperative-stabilize-us-relations-meeting-ambassador-rcna83293
If I was an FBIS media analyst now, I’d be frantically combing the archives to find the last time a senior Chinese official referred to “cold ice.” What actions did the Chinese take in the wake of those words? An economic move? Military?
US policymakers should anticipate a similar action now.
Related: My CIA “Coup Kit”
Cold War remake
OSINT methodology is more than code words, but also about intentional or selective media behavior.
In the past few years, Western media outlets have adopted characteristics of closed media that we studied so rigorously. CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Breitbart, the New York Times, Epoch Times etc, etc, cater to certain agendas, repeat specific terminology, self-define “newsworthy” to refrain from reporting certain stories, and so on.
Look for these indicators
- Media reports are slanted or shaded a certain way,
- Context or pivotal details are left out (how much and for how long),
- Headlines are vaguely misleading (i.e. clickbait),
- Facts that do not align with the article’s intended slant are buried at the bottom or in long and dull paragraphs,
- Phrasing of the intended message is lively, impactful and emotional; rival concepts are portrayed as dull, dangerous or otherwise unappealing,
- Minor news stories are piled on to obscure/deflect attention from potentially troublesome reporting,
- Multiple news outlets use the same exact terminology to report/downplay/heighten an event.
- Absence of reporting—if certain media outlets completely fail to report on a story or offer only a partial report.
- Imagery is selected to shape opinions—for example, certain politicians are consistently shown as grim by one news outlet and smiling by another.
Your decoder ring
You can effectively “decode” the news by using 5 critical thinking techniques:
- Go beyond information silos.
Search for a breadth of perspectives on a single topic. Read across party and political lines. Seek out sources you normally would not.
Hunt for contradictions. Compare past and present. Look for repetition of specific words and phrases. Probably not coincidental.
Is important real news hidden behind distracting entertainment? Released at midnight on Friday after the weekly news cycle is over? Buried at the bottom?
- Question vague language & statistics.
Don’t be suckered by vague claims like 35% better! Better than what? How was that number achieved?
- Recognize Problem, Agitate, Solve.
This blog/marketing formula is everywhere. As media slides into infotainment and is ad revenue-dependent, look for news reports to use this formula, too.
Last thoughts
No Cold War methodology can beat the best technique of all.
Slow down. Be open-minded. Ask hard questions.
Is this true? How do I absolutely know that? What if I’m wrong? Whose agenda benefits from this piece of information and the way it is presented?
The first day that I walked into CIA Headquarters, I was greeted by a quote etched into the lobby wall: “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”
Still relevant today.
Note: Yes, that’s my old FBIS mug sitting on my desk.
May 5, 2023 | #reviews
This Portland, Maine mystery has it all—a wounded, complicated heroine, a multi-faceted investigation with save-the-world implications, and oodles of atmosphere. Best of all, this is just the first in what promises to be a great new mystery series.
Dee Rommel is a Portland cop on extended leave after losing her leg in a fall off a building while chasing a criminal. She now works for an old family friend who runs a private detective agency. Dee wants to keep her head down and be the bookkeeper as she ponders her future, but neither her personality nor the business are going to give Dee what she thinks she wants.
The boss is out of town donating a kidney when Philip Claren walks in. Claren is a mashup of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg who wants the agency to find his adult daughter before she marries a potential gold-digger. Taking after him in the brains department, the genius daughter recently left her laboratory and sent him a note about the pending nuptials with the family safe word in it.
Feeling unequal to the task, Dee reluctantly takes on the job and heads to Chebeaque Island via ferry. Not only is it the wedding destination, but Chebeague is also the safe word.
As the tale unfolds, Claren and his daughter are involved in research that connects artificial intelligence with bionic technology. Is the pending marriage an attempt to steal world-changing tech secrets? The reveal presages the open letter recently signed by Elon Musk and other leading tech notables expressing concern over the unregulated rise of AI and calling for a 6-month development moratorium.
Just wow.
Beyond the Claren family, the cast of characters includes Gordy, Dee’s irascible but generous boss; Abshir, a Somali student with a talent for surveillance; and Robbie Donato, a smart cop who sees through Dee’s often prickly exterior and would like to know her much better.
The prose is swift and punchy. The setting is so real you can almost smell the ocean breeze on the boat to Chebeaque. Dee narrates with an inner voice that is tough yet appealing, making this mystery a great mix of exciting plot and colorful personalities.
Highly recommended.
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May 2, 2023 | #authorlife, #truestory
We sometimes learn–or relearn–life lessons in unexpected places.
I recently joined 14 women creatives at a gathering hosted by award-winning writer and filmmaker Rebekah Iliff at Free Dreaming Farm in Springfield, TN. The gathering followed the tragic shooting in March at Covenant School in Nashville. In addition to healing, the purpose was to foster connections and creative collaborations.
A natural introvert, I was there with a dozen strangers. I knew Rebekah but no one else.
Luckily, the conversation went swiftly from basic introductions to deep sharing and robust engagement, with lots of laughter along the way. This was a no-judgement zone. Support was spontaneous and genuine.
I left musing on 3 life lessons:
Community = good energy
When I left Free Dreaming Farm, I felt lighter, more buoyant, more supported. Those few hours of community interaction were an emotional tonic.
We didn’t change the world but we generated some seriously positive energy shared by all.
Pointing out the crucial need for community and a sense of belonging, marketing guru Mark Schaefer wrote that “People have a deep need to belong, but there is a belonging gap in the world, a profound unmet human need, a need that is escalating to crisis proportions.” https://businessesgrow.com/2020/09/28/customer-community/
The New York Times offers statistics to demonstrate rising rates of loneliness and depression. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/opinion/facebook-social-wealth.html
Basically, when we don’t connect to community, we suffer.
There is power in transition
Many of us were on the way to or in the middle of or finding our way and taking it one day at a time. I’d just wrapped a 2-year research and writing project, the Galliano Club historical fiction series, and admittedly felt adrift. One woman was recovering from breast cancer, another was building a career as a musician, still another just opened a gallery and performance space, etc.
No life is static. Basically everyone was experiencing some measure of transition.
And excited about it, once we got past the nervous notion that we aren’t there yet.
As the conversation went on, it was clear that there is power in transition. It’s the time to gather information and assess options. Transition means not being locked in. We have freedom to revise and restart and explore.
Being on the way is a good thing.
We can learn to be resilient
The word “triggered” got tossed out a few times, which made me put on my ex-CIA intelligence officer hat and make an observation.
“If you can be triggered,” I said. “Then you can also be manipulated. Someone just has to know what triggers you into losing your self-control, then use it against you.”
A great conversation ensued about being self-aware, the popularity of fake victimhood, and not handing over your power.
The bottom line is that if you know what triggers you and develop coping techniques to stay in control, you’re Teflon. You now hold the upper hand in the relationship. Also, no embarrassing knee-jerk reactions, no belated regrets over words you can’t take back. Don’t indulge in the over-hyped martyrdom of being triggered.
We all have the power to be resilient.
What to see these Life Lessons in action? Download a #free copy of the Detective Emilia Cruz Starter Library. She’s the first female police detective in Acapulco. Survivor is her middle name.
Apr 28, 2023 | #reviews
This police procedural offers the best first sentence that I’ve read lately. The overall pace and plotting meet that high bar, making this a fast page-turner.
Sheriff Francis Hood of Huhman County, Missouri, is a savvy and compassionate lawman but also a recovering alcoholic wondering if he can manage the “recovering” bit. His alcohol abuse got so bad that his wife and daughter have moved out.
As the book begins, Hood finds ex-con Jacob Grace passed out drunk on a country road with an ear cut off.
Grace can’t identify his attacker.
Thirty years ago, Grace stabbed and killed his wife and two sons. A daughter survived but was disfigured. Now he’s out of prison and working as a farm hand not far from the scene of the crime.
Hood’s investigation of the ear-cutting assault leads to the daughter who lives in the house where the crime took place. She’s a reclusive artist and intriguing interlocutor as Jacob is attacked again.
This time, his nose is cut off.
The assaults are bizarre and random . . . Until they make perfect sense. At the same time, two minor criminals are on a spree, robbing church functions. They don’t seem to have any connection to the troubled Grace family . . . At first.
Alcoholism as a character’s Fatal Flaw is a well-trodden path for fictional crimefighters, but SENSE OF GRACE manages to approach it in a different way. Throughout the book Hood mulls his new identity as a recovering alcoholic, the need for spiritual support, and what to do about a deputy heading out of control.
You can’t help but root for Hood, a decent guy getting through one day at a time. I love the way he always introduces himself, “I’m your sheriff, Francis Hood.” It’s great insight into a character who’d do well on the silver screen.
Highly recommended.
Get SENSE OF GRACE for your #Kindle
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Apr 27, 2023 | #authorlife, #GallianoClub
While chatting with fellow author Shelley Blanton-Stroud (grab her free book, COPY BOY) for an upcoming episode of Mystery Crew Reviews, she asked if my villainous great-grandfather was the impetus for my love of mystery.
“No,” I replied, because I was well into my second career as an author by the time the family found out about his crime. (FYI-in 1912, my great-grandfather shot and killed his wife and another man, evaded a police manhunt, and was never seen again.)
Related: The Amato Family Murder Mystery
Instead, perhaps the award for encouraging my love of mystery goes to the murderer’s son-in-law, my maternal grandfather, Joseph Sestito. Apart from his stories about being a deputy sheriff during Prohibition, which inspired the Galliano Club historical fiction thriller series, he once put me in jail.
For many years he was City Marshal of Rome, NY, meaning that he delivered summonses to appear in court, claims notices, and liens on wages and property, all of which he recorded in ledgers I now have.
My grandfather’s ledgers, kept while City Marshal of Rome, NY.
Every transaction was recorded, along with the fee he earned. The heading reads “Summons” which meant a summons to appear in city court.
My grandparents Ann and Joe, about the time he was City Marshal of Rome, NY.
I was 4 or 5 when he brought me to Rome’s brand-new police station, parked me in a cell, and locked me in. He and his cop buddies had a chuckle at the curly-haired tyke behind bars before turning to business.
I recall investigating the spartan cell and getting bored. But I also recall the positive impression made by my grandfather and his law enforcement colleagues. Badges. Camaraderie. A sense of purpose. Problem-solving.
Well, they’d certainly solved the problem of babysitting.
P.S. All of the Galliano Club books are now available! A heartfelt thank you to reviewers like fellow mystery author Suzanne Baginski who wrote, “Brilliantly crafted, I highly recommend this gritty historical thriller. From the first page to the last, Murder at the Galliano Club is one terrific read.”
Click to order on Amazon
Apr 25, 2023 | #booknews, #GallianoClub, #newsroom
Press release: Four-book Galliano Club series by Carmen Amato is a must-read for fans of The Godfather, The Untouchables and Boardwalk Empire.
The press release just went out!
It’s a combination new release announcement and series wrap-up.
All 4 books in the Galliano Club historical fiction series are available as Kindle ebook and paperback editions. Large-print editions will be released later this year.
Get a ringside seat for the epic battle over a bootleg beer racket between a Chicago mobster and an Italian immigrant in 1926.
Chased out of Chicago by Al Capone, hitman Benny Rotolo flees to Lido, NY on the banks of the Mohawk River to build his own bootlegging empire. He plans to seize the Galliano Club, a neighborhood hangout for Italian mill workers, and remake it into a speakeasy to rival Capone’s fabled Four Deuces.
Luca Lombardo, manager of the club, won’t let it go without a fight. After passing through Ellis Island, he lost wife, child, and dreams of a better life. The Galliano Club and its close-knit community is all he has left.
Read the entire press release here: https://www.prlog.org/12961665-upstate-new-york-history-comes-alive-in-new-prohibition-era-thriller-series.html
Retail discount
Bookstores and other booksellers receive a 55% discount on paperback editions:
ROAD TO THE GALLIANO CLUB: Prequel
ISBN: 978-1-7353079-2-3
Release date: 8 March 2022
Price: $9.99
Pages: 195
MURDER AT THE GALLIANO CLUB
ISBN: 978-1-7353079-4-7
Release date: 20 October 2022
Price: $15.99
Pages: 352
BLACKMAIL AT THE GALLIANO CLUB
ISBN: 978-1-7353079-6-1
Release date: 16 February 2023
Price: $15.99
Pages: 352
REVENGE AT THE GALLIANO CLUB
ISBN: 978-1-7353079-8-5
Release date: 30 March 2023
Price: $15.99
Pages: 368
Mar 17, 2023 | #reviews
THE DEAD CERTAIN DOUBT is a noir gem, peppered with American muscle cars, a hard-drinking hero, and universal life lessons.
Ed Earl Burch is a Dallas private eye of a certain age. With an angel on one shoulder and the devil everywhere else, he’s too young to retire, yet too old to keep hanging on to so many bad memories. To paraphrase the Toby Keith song, he ain’t as good as he once was, but he’s as good once as he ever was.
Having triumphed over an opioid addiction, he’s making some amends. In THE DEAD CERTAIN DOUBT, guilt over an abandoned friendship puts him on the proverbial road to hell paved with good intentions.
Written in author Nesbitt’s powerfully lyrical and staccato prose, the hunt for a troubled young woman who is involved with a Mexican drug cartel woman puts Ed Earl Burch—and the reader—through the wringer. The pace is swift, the action is raw, and the characters are intense and visual. The compelling power of remorse drives the page-turning pace even as the glorious phrasing makes you want to stop and savor the work of a master wordsmith.
Just the description of the main character grips you:
Dallas private eye Ed Earl Burch is an emotional wreck, living on the edge of madness, hosing down the nightmares of his last case with bourbon and Percodan, dreading the next onslaught of demons that haunt his days and nights.
Nesbitt’s prose, characters, and gritty authenticity make him one of today’s most talented and stylish noir writers.
THE DEAD CERTAIN DOUBT is the fourth Ed Earl Burch book, each one a standalone gem.
Order it on Amazon
Feb 16, 2023 | #booknews
New release!
Today is release day for BLACKMAIL AT THE GALLIANO CLUB, the second book in the Prohibition-era historical thriller series.
Grab a seat at the bar. Big things are happening.
Beer and Blackmail
Lido, New York. The year is 1926, Prohibition is in full swing.
Still smarting from the way he was run out of Chicago by Al Capone, bootlegger Benny Rotolo has a fresh scheme to seize the Galliano Club and turn the humble neighborhood club into the finest speakeasy north of Manhattan.
Blackmail.
He’ll use the same tactics as the infamous La Mano Nera terror group that preys on successful Italian immigrants. Anonymous letters. Bullets. Fire.
Pay or die.
Related: Researching Prohibition
Unaware of Benny’s plan, Galliano Club bartender Luca Lombardo is in the spotlight after surviving an attempted murder. What will happen when Luca’s darkest secrets are for sale?
Warning: Blackmail is contagious. Dancer Ruth Cross lives above the Galliano Club. A dirty cop knows her scandalous past and demands a high price for silence. If Luca can’t save her, who can?
When blackmail threatens everyone, murder isn’t far behind.
Are you a fan of The Godfather, The Untouchables, and Boardwalk Empire? The Galliano Club series is for you.
The 1920s come alive at the Galliano Club with an unforgettable cast of bootleggers, gangsters, and a flawed hero determined to break old rules and seize a new future.
Lido, New York isn’t a real place
As many of you know, the fictional city of Lido is based on my hometown of Rome, New York. Many of you have asked exactly where Lido might be, so here’s a useful map pointing to Lido’s fictional location, plus helpful silhouettes of the USA and New York to get your bearings.
Related: New York to Mexico and back again
Along with Rome, other cities in upstate New York have names from Italy. Verona, Utica, Syracuse, etc. As you might guess, this part of upstate New York has a large Italian community.
Many, like my great-grandparents, came from Calabria in southern Italy.
That’s the part circled in red on the map. Basically Calabria is the toe perpetually kicking Sicily into the Mediterranean.
(OK, I tried to make it a heart. Don’t judge.)
While researching the Italian immigrant experience, I unearthed a double murder on the night of my grandparents’ wedding reception that took the lives of two of their guests, and “met” a great-grandfather who killed two people in 1912 in Hartford, Connecticut and escaped a manhunt, never to be seen again.
More on those crimes in a future post 🙂
Celebrating Italian-ness
I also discovered an exciting movement dedicated to preserving and celebrating Italian heritage. It’s not just all about food!
Here are 3 organizations that do it with style:
Italian Enclaves: The first ever pictorial catalogue of every Italian neighborhood and Italian national parish in the US. Rome is listed, of course. There is even a photo of the original Galliano Club.
America Domani: Polished blog with long-form posts on contemporary Italian-American events, places, and cultural ephemera.
Italian-American Podcast: A weekly dose of Italian-American heritage, history and humor.
Wings and roots
In unsettled times, connecting to family, heritage and fast-disappearing traditions feels more important than ever.
Whatever your background, I hope you find connections and community that give you both wings and roots.
Or build them yourself. As the saying goes, if you build it, they will come.
Happy Reading!
I hope you love the Galliano Club books as much as I have enjoying writing them while discovering my roots and learning about the Italian immigration experience.
Get the backstory behind the series here.
Find ebooks on Amazon and paperback editions everywhere.
ROAD TO THE GALLIANO CLUB: PREQUEL
MURDER AT THE GALLIANO CLUB
BLACKMAIL AT THE GALLIANO CLUB
REVENGE AT THE GALLIANO CLUB coming 30 March 2023. Preorder here.
Feb 11, 2023 | #reviews
In SQUATTER’S RIGHTS by Cheril Thomas, compelling family secrets come with the house.
The first book in the Eastern Shores Mysteries introduces us to attorney Grace Reagan, who just bought the huge money pit on Maryland’s rural Eastern Shore where her mother grew up.
The old mansion, known as Delaney House, was last inhabited by Grace’s grandmother, Emma Delaney. Grace never knew why her late mother and grandmother were estranged. Buying the house feels like a first step toward righting a wrong from a past she doesn’t understand.
Related post: Book Review: SWEETLAND by Dareth Pray
But to Grace’s surprise, a hitherto unknown uncle and cousin feel entitled to the house, despite Emma’s will which forced the house to be sold at auction. Their goal is to push Grace out.
SQUATTER’S RIGHTS gives us a mystery embedded in the very bones of the house and in the family torn apart inside it. After setting the scene, the narrative is imbued with quickening sense of foreboding.
Grace remains at odds with the uncle and cousins as questions mount. What drove her mother away from Delaney House years ago and why do echoes of distrust and anger linger even now? What secrets did Emma take to the grave? Is Grace’s romantically-inclined contractor who he says he is?
Hints spool out in the form of letters written in the 1950’s by a newly married Emma to her parents back in Asheville, North Carolina. The suspense-building letters are inserted into the current-day action in exactly the right places, driving a two-pronged drama until past and present merge into shocking answers.
Expect spot-on atmosphere and a tantalizing family secret. There are 4 more books in the series, too.
Highly recommended.
Order it on Amazon here.
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Jan 27, 2023 | #truestory
You’ve been granted a tour of the original Central Intelligence Agency headquarters building outside Washington, DC.
Pass the statue of Nathan Hale as you walk through the big glass doors of the front entrance. Try not to gawk.
Once inside, the Great Seal stretches across the floor in varied shades of gray granite. A quote from the Bible is chiseled on the wall to your left. To the right, you see the Wall of Honor. Each star on the wall represents an Agency officer who died in the line of duty.
At CIA Headquarters, Nov 2016, the same day I was awarded the Career Intelligence Medal.
Walk straight ahead to the bronze bust of William Donovan, head of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, the forerunner of the CIA. Proceed past walls lined with portraits of US presidents and former Directors of National Intelligence. Pause by Leon Panetta’s portrait. His dog Bravo, who often came to the office, is in the picture with him.
Through a bank of tall windows, you’ll glimpse a big courtyard. Keep going.
You’re almost at the most highly anticipated stop on your tour.
The store
Imagine the Disney Store if it was full of items bearing the CIA seal. Everything from cuff links to glassware, cigarette lighters to tee shirts. Even a cookbook written by intelligence officers called Spies, Black Ties and Mango Pies. Hidden in the back are necessary items for busy office workers: aspirin, mouthwash, extra ties and pantyhose.
Wade into the clothing section. Ignore the ubiquitous hoodies and polos. You’re looking for treasure.
There it is.
One tee to rule them all
The tee shirt bears 3 simple sentences, the unofficial ethos of those engaged in clandestine activities. These 3 simple sentences are key to understanding how lying and deception gain traction.
- Admit nothing.
- Deny everything.
- Make counter accusations.
Whether bold-faced lies or subtle marketing falsehoods, successful lies are grounded in at least one of these concepts.
Admit Nothing
The easiest thing to do when confronted by a lie is to not admit it. Politicians and their spokespeople do it all the time. “No comment.”
A lie of omission is when you admit nothing AND create a believably false narrative. For example, by not reporting a hot news item that might damage a political or economic ally, a media outlet implies that the story is just not that important. Not worth wasting time on it.
The best thing about lies of omission is that they’re just so durn hard to prove.
Deny Everything
Denial is most effective with creative, slippery and/or vague language. “There’s no there, there.”
WTF?
Do you recall President Bill Clinton’s 1998 denial in regard to his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky? “I did not have sex with that woman.”
Given the accusations, the word “sex” became a distracting sideshow. What does the word REALLY mean? And can we talk about it out loud?
Result? Denial AND a shiny object for detractors to chase.
Make Counter Accusations
Send the blame elsewhere. So-and-so did it, not me.
Go a step further and accuse So-and-so of having a nefarious reason for doing the bad thing. Claim to know their innermost thoughts.
Bonus points 1: make the counter accusation before the original accusation gets out there. Get ahead of the problem.
Bonus points 2: make the counter accusation into a shiny object for the audience to chase. Look! It’s Elvis!
Pushback? Repeats steps 1 and 2, above.
How I know this stuff
I spent 30 years with the CIA as an intelligence officer. Including a stint studying China’s media practices, the job gave me a world-class education in the mechanics of deception.
Now as a mystery and thriller author, that education helps me create crime fiction loaded with danger and deception.
Related: The Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series
As the Information Age picks up speed, we encounter more and more instances of creative falsehoods and hidden information.
We are fooled by clever lies of omission, slippery denials, and fingers that point in the wrong direction. And then there’s marketing . . . Basically we are living in a stew of deception.
In short, I find the mechanics of lying and deception quite fascinating and will be discussing it in the months ahead.
Ready?
Tour over. Grab your tee shirt and that engraved CIA beer stein. We’ve got work to do.
