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...
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Writing a mystery: 3 essential questions
May 18, 2019 | #authorlife, #booknews
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
May 7, 2019 | #booknews, #EmiliaCruz
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...
Two awards
Mar 22, 2019 | #booknews
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...
The lost chapter of THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY
Jan 21, 2019 | #booknews, #thrillers
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...
The Ayotzinapa tragedy 4 years later
Sep 23, 2018 | #booknews, #EmiliaCruz
My most recent book, 43 MISSING: Detective Emilia Cruz Book 6, was inspired by the events of September 2014 when 43 students from a teacher's college in the town of Ayotzinapa, near Acapulco in Mexico's state of Guerrero, disappeared in the nearby town of...
10 Lessons from Killer Nashville
Sep 2, 2018 | #authorlife, #booknews
The Killer Nashville International Writer’s Conference was the first of its kind I’ve ever attended. I didn’t know quite what to expect but tried to put my best foot forward: Served on 3 panels (Writing Spies and Espionage, Settings, Witness Reliability),...
Heading to Killer Nashville
Aug 23, 2018 | #booknews
I'm heading to the Killer Nashville mystery writer's conference, where 43 MISSING, the 6th Detective Emilia Cruz novel, is a finalist for the Silver Falchion award for Best Procedural. The award has multiple categories and many of the finalists are very...
The worst writing advice ever. Not kidding.
Feb 20, 2018 | #booknews, #truestory
“But the novel is set in Mexico,” she said. “All the characters are Mexican.” “That’s right,” I replied. “Lives of the people fighting the drug cartels. And Mexico’s class structure.” More than 5 years ago, I was speaking on the phone to a well-known American author...
Read the first chapter of 43 MISSING
Dec 12, 2017 | #booknews, #EmiliaCruz
For most authors, the final draft of a mystery novel is markedly different than the first. In fact, the first chapter of 43 MISSING was rewritten a dozen times. Nothing really clicked until the book was done. Then I went back and wrote it with a hint of premonition....
A Tale of Two Murders, courtesy of the John Feit trial
Dec 6, 2017 | #booknews, #truestory
A few days ago I got an email from Josh Gaynor, a producer for the CBS show 48 Hours. He had run across my short story “The Angler” about the 2007 murder of Father Richard Junius in Mexico City. Father Richard was the pastor of Saint Patrick’s Church when I was...
The real story behind 43 MISSING
Nov 28, 2017 | #booknews, #EmiliaCruz
43 MISSING, the latest Detective Emilia Cruz novel, is fiction but is based on a true, unsolved crime. A big, terrible, words-fail-me unsolved crime. 43 Missing In September 2014, forty-three students from the Ayotzinapa Normal School disappeared while in...
Gripping Audible Mystery Series Flies You to Acapulco
Sep 14, 2017 | #booknews, #EmiliaCruz
The first four books in the Detective Emilia Cruz series set in Acapulco are all available on Audible from Tantor Media! The books are narrated by the fabulous Johanna Parker, who also voiced the Sookie Stackhouse series. Johanna has really...
New Travel Book! The Insider’s Guide to the Best of Mexico
Jun 23, 2017 | #booknews
THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO THE BEST OF MEXICO was released this week on Amazon, Nook, Scribid, Playster, Inkterra, and Kobo. It is already #1 on Amazon's Hot New Releases list for the Mexico Travel category! It's a unique collection of stories, essays, and photographs...
Open Letter to Readers About Sex
May 17, 2017 | #booknews
My first novel, THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY, contains two sex scenes. The first catches Luz de Maria and Eddo as they fall in love with an emotional depth new to both of them. The second is when they reunite after each separately survives violence at the hands of...













