Why You Can’t Spy a Lie and What to Do About It
Many years ago, my husband and I bought a single-engine Piper 180 airplane. He’d go out to the small airport 30 minutes from our house, expand his piloting skills and get a break from his...
4 Unputdownable Thrilling Spy Reads
Need Father's Day ideas? How about a couple of thrilling spy reads? As a retired CIA officer, I can vouch for the authenticity of each book on this list. Well-crafted, spine-tingling action,...
25 International Mystery Series to Take You Around the World
A hand-selected list of international mystery series that will take you around the world. How many have you read?AFRICA 1 Precious Ramotswe series by Alexander McCall Smith Main character: Precious...
An 80-year-old deception operation has lessons for today
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...
Could notorious spy and traitor Aldrich Ames defeat AI?
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...
Don’t be Fooled! Decode the News with these Cold War Tips and Tricks
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....
Book Review: 10 DAYS by Jule Selbo
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...
3 Life Lessons from a Gathering of Strangers
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...
Book Review: SENSE OF GRACE by Richard F. McGonegal
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,...
Jailbirds
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...
Press release: 4-book Galliano Club historical fiction series now available
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...
Book Review: THE DEAD CERTAIN DOUBT by Jim Nesbitt
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...
New Release! BLACKMAIL AT THE GALLIANO CLUB
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...
Book Review: Family Secrets Come with the House in SQUATTER’S RIGHTS
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...
The 3 Golden Rules of Lying and Deception
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...
Book review: THE MONOGRAM MURDERS by Sophie Hannah
I love reading a good mystery as much as I love writing them! Here's what I read this week. A new Hercule Poirot mystery Mystery fans can’t get enough of Agatha Christie’s fussy Belgian detective...
Release Update and Excerpt: Blackmail at the Galliano Club
Blackmail BLACKMAIL AT THE GALLIANO CLUB is slated for release on 16 February 2023! The Galliano Club historical fiction thrillers take place in 1926, in a fictional upstate New York city modeled on...
Book Review: SWEETLAND by Dareth Pray
Debut thriller SWEETLAND takes off like a rocket and never loses speed. Author Dareth Pray is one to watch! Erin Stark is a new kind of female thriller heroine, giving fictional male colleagues like...
Best Prohibition-era Reading
A tall frosty glass of Prohibition, ballplayers and mobsters? I drank up a dozen books while researching 1926 for the Galliano Club thriller series. Now that MURDER AT THE GALLIANO CLUB has hit your...
New Release! MURDER AT THE GALLIANO CLUB
New release MURDER AT THE GALLIANO CLUB is now available in Kindle and paperback editions. The first novel in the Galliano Club thriller series debuted in the Number 2 spot on Amazon’s Italian...
Release Dates for the Galliano Club series
Release dates! All three full-length novels in the Prohibition-era Galliano Club series are scheduled for release: 20 October 2022: MURDER AT THE GALLIANO CLUB 16 February 2023: BLACKMAIL AT...
Arrests made in the next chapter of 43 MISSING
Mexico’s Truth Commission investigating the mass disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College may finally solve the 8 year old crime that inspired the Detective Emilia...
Killer Nashville’s success story
There is a success story behind the Killer Nashville International Mystery Writer’s Conference. The weekend among my fellow writers always inspires and recharges. This was my 4th time attending. The...
Book Review: THE GUILTY DIE TWICE by Don Hartshorn
THE GUILTY DIE TWICE offers a memorable cast of characters, two pivotal crimes, lots of deliciously grubby political machinations, and both sides of the death penalty argument. The writing is both...
Collaboration Opportunity for Food Bloggers
Are you a food blogger? Love to cook Italian? Are you looking for a fresh, fun collaboration opportunity? The Galliano Club series of historical thriller books will be released this coming Fall...
Researching Prohibition at the West End Brewery #bestjobever
Researching the 1920’s for the Galliano Club books naturally means I have to research beer. Yes, beer. Notably beer in upstate New York, the setting for the Galliano Club series. Beer is a hot...
Book Review: A NEAPOLITAN INTRIGUE by Kate McVaugh
Past and present collide in this clever thriller that moves between present-day Naples, Italy, and Berkeley, California in 1969. A NEAPOLITAN INTRIGUE deals with serious topics with a smooth prose...