MYSTERY AUTHOR | CIA VETERAN
Carmen Amato
Hello, I’m Carmen. I learned a few things about danger, deception and resilience during a 30-year career with the CIA. Now a mystery author, those lessons play out on the page, especially in the Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series set in Acapulco. All declassified, of course 🙂
“A must-read for lovers of smart, character-driven crime fiction with a global edge.” – Reader’s House
LATEST RELEASE
DRAGON CARTEL
Acapulco police detective Emilia Cruz is already stretched to the max hunting cartel assassin El Barracuda when she agrees to take on the case of a missing Customs inspector.
At the same time, the interrogation of a mysterious Chinese national turns a local crime into an international puzzle.
A missing inspector. A cartel assassin. And a conspiracy that links Mexico and the United States to China.
DRAGON CARTEL is the 10th mystery in the award-winning Detective Emilia Cruz series. Available now on all ebook platforms. Look for the paperback and audiobook editions later this summer.
SIGNATURE SERIES
Meet Detective Emilia Cruz, the first female police detective in Acapulco.
Think Narcos meets Hawaii 5-0, as she navgates cartels, corruption and social inequality while hunting for Mexico’s missing.
Explore
DETECTIVE EMILIA CRUZ SERIES
Emilia Cruz is the first female police detective in Acapulco, fighting drug cartels, official corruption and social inequality amid the hunt for Mexico’s missing.
2019, 2020 Outstanding Series Award, CrimeMasters of America
2019 Silver Falchion Award, Killer Nashville
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
STANDALONE THRILLERS
Contemporary thrillers featuring complex plots, unforgettable characters and layers of risk, power, and deception.
Longlist, 2020 Millennium Book Award
Latest Posts
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…