PACIFIC REAPER
Has Acapulco’s first female police detective been cursed by Santa Muerte, Mexico’s feared and forbidden saint of death?
Emilia Cruz, the first female police detective in Acapulco, takes on a voodoo-like cult in an effort to stop a range war between rival cartel gangs. But when she does, everyone close to her has a brush with death.
Now it’s her turn . . . Will Emilia be the next victim when she goes undercover on the eve of the Day of the Dead?
Listen to the audiobook, narrated by Leanne Maksin in a compelling, award-worthy performance.
Mystery Author
Carmen Amato
There’s a piece of my 30-year CIA career in everything I write.
In the Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series, you'll go on a gripping journey through Mexico's drug war. Based on my own counterdrug experience, it's a place where loyalty is for sale but violence comes cheap.
There’s more action and drama in my standalone contemporary thrillers and the historical Galliano Club trilogy, inspired by my grandfather who was a deputy sheriff in New York during Prohibition.
Thanks for being on this journey with me!
I spy mystery ahead
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Praise for Detective Emilia Cruz
Read the Reviews
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Carmen Amato has created a character that deserves to be recognized as an equal alongside well known favorites by created by by Hammett, Larson and Padura. I can’t wait to spend more time with Detective Cruz. – Felix Contreras, host, ALTLatino, National Public Radio
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Astounding . . . a haunting page-turner . . . The tragedy of decent members of society caught in the crossfire stayed with me long after I finished the book. – Nightstand Book Reviews
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The story is full of nonstop action and suspense, but what really got to me in this book is the range of strong emotions I’ve felt while reading it . . . Emilia is a character that is close to my heart. – MysterySequels
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Amato brings her characters to life with her vivid writing style and sets them on the streets of a Mexico steeped in Catholicism and corruption . . . Unique and gripping. – OnlineBookClub.org
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A real page-turner . . . Detective Cruz is a fully fleshed out character. Tough, but not above shedding a few tears, she bears the scars of a violent past while handling being the first and only female detective in Acapulco. – BookLife Prize
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Amato weaves a vivid tapestry that depicts both the beauty and ugliness of Acapulco. Her attention to clothing, food, and other details of the cityscape bring life to her characters . . . with danger and betrayal never more than a few pages away. – Kirkus Reviews
Danger and Deception
Books by Carmen
DETECTIVE EMILIA CRUZ SERIES
Emilia Cruz is the first female police detective in Acapulco, fighting drug cartels, official corruption and Mexican machismo.
2019, 2020 Outstanding Series award, CrimeMasters of America
2019 Silver Falchion Award, Killer Nashville
CLIFF DIVER | HAT DANCE | DIABLO NIGHTS
KING PESO | PACIFIC REAPER | 43 MISSING
RUSSIAN MOJITO | NARCO NOIR |BARRACUDA BAY
MADE IN ACAPULCO
GALLIANO CLUB TRILOGY
Lido, NY. 1926. At the height of Prohibition, an Italian immigrant and a trigger-happy Chicago bootlegger battle for control of the Galliano Club, where trouble is always on tap.
Based on tales told by my late grandfather, a Deputy Sheriff of Oneida County, NY in the 1920's.
2023 Silver Falchion Award, Killer Nashville
ROAD TO THE GALLIANO CLUB
MURDER AT THE GALLIANO CLUB
BLACKMAIL AT THE GALLIANO CLUB
REVENGE AT THE GALLIANO CLUB
STANDALONE THRILLERS
Contemporary thrillers featuring complex plots, unforgettable characters and layers of risk, power, and deception.
Longlist, 2020 Millennium Book Award
Progress report
Working on
- DRAGON CARTEL: Detective Emilia Cruz #10 60%
- MOSCOW SYNDROME (contribution) 95%
Events
Coming Up
28 Nov Better on Draft podcast guest appearance
The Shop Talk Blog
Follow Along
How to Introduce Yourself with Confidence
It’s summer. Also known as the Season of Author Conferences and Book Festivals. This means that I’ll be introducing myself to lots of strangers. In noisy situations, dull situations, spur-of-the-moment situations. But even if you aren’t an author at a bookish event,...
New YouTube Sensation: Amato2Berrick Crime Conversations
I've teamed with UK author Jane Harvey-Berrick, who writes the Cornish Crime Thriller series as Berrick Ford, in a new YouTube project! Our Amato2Berrick Crime Conversations features short videos (7-10 minutes) in which we discuss what makes crime fiction so...
Book Review: MIDNIGHT AND BLUE by Ian Rankin
Over the years, Rankin has put his iconic Edinburgh police detective John Rebus through the wringer. In the latest, MIDNIGHT AND BLUE, Rebus is 60-something and in jail for the murder of his longstanding frenemy, Morris Gerald Cafferty, one-time lord of the city’s...
Carlota/Claudia: Fictional Mayor vs Madam El Presidente
Carlota Montoya Perez, the fictional mayor of Acapulco in the Detective Emilia Cruz series, was “born” long before Claudia Sheinbaum became president of Mexico last year. (That’s her official presidential portrait.) Yet the two women, one fictional and one real, are...
Book Review: KARLA’s CHOICE by Nick Harkaway
The master of spy fiction, is of course, John le Carré. TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY is the classic Cold War counterintelligence tale. There’s a Soviet mole within the Circus, the author euphemism for British Intelligence. George Smiley is the retired spymaster called...
Not Quite James Bond but a good career nonetheless
My CIA career has come up several times lately, during new release promo events for BARRACUDA BAY, the latest Detective Emilia Cruz mystery. House of Mystery podcast When I was chatting with House of Mystery podcast co-hosts Alan Warren and Joe Goldberg, one of them...




