Book review: ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE by Louise Penny
ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE by Louise Penny An entry in the Gamache mystery series that doesn't take place in Three Pines? What is the world coming to?? Paris. The premise Armand Gamache is once again...
Inside my CIA Career: Parting Words
I had a retirement photo opportunity with then-CIA Director John Brennan. He greeted me with a CIA keepsake coin and a firm handshake. We posed for the photographer and chatted for a minute about...
Inside my CIA Career: The Point of It All
Before retiring, I took a seminar about transitioning to the private sector. All the students were fellow CIA intelligence officers. At one point, somebody raised a hand and said what everybody was...
Inside my CIA Career: Variety and the Spice of Life
What did I do? Whenever I’m asked, “What did you do in the CIA?” I’m a bit stuck. There’s no good snappy answer. I did a variety of things, many of which can't be defined in layman's terms. One of...
Inside my CIA Career: Encounter with a Spyplane
FLYING Several years ago, my husband got his private pilot’s license and we owned a small Piper aircraft. Our son was in kindergarten and promptly fell in love with all things aviation. This rubbed...
Book Review: THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Richard Osman
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Richard Osman What happens when the residents of a bucolic senior living community in England get together to investigate a murder? For starters, one murder becomes . . ....
Inside my CIA Career: Media Matters
What the heck is OSINT My resume includes this line: OSINT Analyst/Editor, Foreign Broadcast Information Service. Wrote, edited, and briefed analytical conclusions and OSINT reporting content to...
Inside my CIA Career: Secrets of Great Dialogue
Competing Motivations As happened so many times over the course of a 30-year CIA career, I was either a participant or an observer in a dialogue. Not the conversation that happens when you are both...
Inside my CIA Career: Make it “Actionable”
CIA career During my 30-year CIA career, it was always impressed upon me that we were stewards of the taxpayer’s money. With that in mind, there was effort to make sure the CIA and sister agencies...
Inside my CIA Career: The Moving Picture Show
Thanks to my CIA Career If you’ve read the last few books in the Detective Emilia Cruz police series set in Acapulco, you may have noticed that video plays an important role in providing clues and...
Book Review: True Fiction by Lee Goldberg
TRUE FICTION by Lee Goldberg This outrageously campy thriller is pure escapism. Prepare to suspend disbelief, enjoy a zany premise, and get carried away. The premise Ian Ludlow, author of the he-man...
Inside my CIA Career: the Coup Kit
Coups My official resume says this about the 5 years during my CIA career when I was an all-source analyst: Performed all source analysis of geographic topics of intelligence interest in support of...
Inside my CIA Career: The Analytic Puzzle
First Job My first position with the Central Intelligence Agency was as a political analyst. The official CIA website describes analysis jobs as: “Collaborative. Problem-solvers. Critical thinkers....
What I did in the CIA: Glutinous but not Unflavorful
Blame it on the Swedish meatballs Early in my CIA career, I was having lunch in the cafeteria of the Original Headquarters Building (back when it was the only Headquarters building.) My friend Willa...
Book Review: SNOW by John Banville
SNOW by John Banville got a hearty endorsement from several hard-core mystery reader friends and it lived up to expectations in every way except one. It’s a freezing, snowy winter in 1957. Ireland...
The Big Pivot of 2021
The Big Pivot Do you remember the sofa moving scene in Friends? They guys are doing their best, but it’s too big to get up the stairs. Ross keeps yelling “Pivot, pivot” to no avail. That’s 2020. In...
Best of 2020: Top 10 Book Reviews from the Mystery Ahead Newsletter
Best of 2020 Yes, 2020 had a silver lining. We all stayed home and read more. Every other Sunday, I fed the collective appetite of fellow mystery lovers with the Mystery Ahead newsletter. Readers...
The Face that Launched 1000 Words
Some authors look for visual cues to help create setting and characters. Most call it research. I call it antiques hunting. THE FACE OF THE GALLIANO CLUB To build the Galliano Club series, I have my...
Longlisted for the 2020 Millennium Book Award
10 November 2020 Political thriller THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY has been longlisted for the 2020 Millennium Book Award. The novel features a Mexican attorney who fights an insidious plot to use...
Paranormal Romance Tops BookLife’s October Indie Spotlight
15 October 2020 AWAKENING MACBETH, a romantic thriller with a paranormal twist by Carmen Amato, tops BookLife's Indie Spotlight of paranormal and supernatural offerings for October 2020: ...
Fiction author asks: Why do we fall in love?
True Story I met my husband at a Memorial Day picnic. After burgers and hot dogs, our host hauled out Trivial Pursuit. Teams were assembled and a fierce no-holds-barred game ensued. To my chagrin,...
Virgibooks Publishes Detective Emilia Cruz Stories in Italian
27 September 2020 The Italian translation of MADE IN ACAPULCO was released this week by Italian publisher Virgibooks. Specializing in short stories and novellas, Virgibooks will translate and...
2020 Poison Cup Award from CrimeMasters of America
13 September 2020 The Detective Emilia Cruz police procedural series received the 2020 Poison Cup Award from CrimeMasters of America, the second year in a row that the series has been honored with...
New York to Mexico and Back Again
ONCE UPON A TIME My hometown of Rome, New York, was a close-knit community where almost everyone was Italian, Irish, or Polish and a Roman Catholic. Five hours away from New York City and the Statue...
Book Review: THUNDERSTRUCK by Erik Larson
Non-fiction author Erik Larsen (DEAD WAKE, THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY, THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE, etc.) writes true crime with the sweep, suspense, and vocabulary of the best fiction authors....
How to Survive a Pandemic from Polar History’s “Wicked Mate”
I was recently asked if the coronavirus pandemic had changed what readers want from mystery authors. Maybe. Right now, I think readers appreciate a good tale of overcoming the odds. That’s why polar...
7th Detective Emilia Cruz Mystery is Finalist for 2020 Silver Falchion
30 July 2020 RUSSIAN MOJITO, the 7th installment of the Detective Emilia Cruz police procedural series set in Acapulco by Carmen Amato, is a finalist for the 2020 Silver Falchion Award from the...
