#EmiliaCruz
Blogging about the Detective Emilia Cruz police series.
President Trump vs Mexican drug cartel labs
Mark Esper has written about his stint as secretary of defense during the last year of President Donald Trump’s administration in A SACRED OATH. Before the book came out this month, excerpts published in the New York Times revealed that President Trump, frustrated by...
How a Real Cliff Diver Tames Her Fears
Ellie Smart is a professional cliff diver, but not an adrenaline junkie. Riiiight. A native of Missouri and former collegiate diver at UC Berkeley, with a Masters degree in sports and exercise science, Smart is the only American woman with a permanent billet on the...
At least you didn’t fall into a narco sinkhole
Imagine taking a nap on your sofa one afternoon, only to be awakened when the floor collapses, pitching you into a sinkhole. But it’s not a true sinkhole, it’s a tunnel built by drug cartel smugglers that runs under your house. This happened last week to a man in...
NEW EVIDENCE IN 43 MISSING TRUE CRIME
It only took 7 years, but the real truth behind Mexico’s most notorious true crime is finally coming out. 43 MISSING TRUE CRIME On 24 September 2014, students from the Ayotzinapa rural teacher’s college in the Mexican state of Guerrero—best known as home to the iconic...
Hard truths about the war on drugs from a retired US intel officer
Chris Reed, deputy editorial and opinion editor for the San Diego Union-Tribune, recently wrote a piece entitled “Add Mexico to Afghanistan, Iraq to list of nations U.S. has severely wronged.” I was surprised to find that the article centered on the views of Don...
Detective Emilia Cruz’s Origin Story
What is Detective Emilia Cruz's origin story? How was the mystery series invented? Well, it started with poinsettias. Many, many poinsettias. The following is from the Author's Note in the new edition of CLIFF DIVER, the first book in the Detective Emilia Cruz mystery...
My Fijian romance and other Unforgettable Taxi Tales
To get in the right mindset for NARCO NOIR, in which Detective Emilia Cruz goes undercover as a taxi driver to catch a killer, friends and I are sharing some outrageously memorable taxi rides. Which of these are you happy to have missed? Related: The True Story Behind...
Mexico, Women, Femicide, Fiction
“Women and glass are always in danger.” – Mexican proverb Imagine if Portland, Maine, or Greenville, South Carolina went missing, simply ebbing away like shadows in sunlight over the course of 14 years. The official count of people missing in Mexico since 2006 is...
New Release! RUSSIAN MOJITO, Detective Emilia Cruz Book 7
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...
Countdown to RUSSIAN MOJITO: Detective Emilia Cruz Book 7
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...
The Ayotzinapa tragedy 4 years later
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...
Read the first chapter of 43 MISSING
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....