“If the police show up, make sure you’re holding the package.”
The fellow CIA officer prepping me to meet a deep cover agent wasn’t trying to scare me, although he sure succeeded.
No, he was simply being practical. I was expendable. The source wasn’t.
Meeting a CIA source in a foreign country involved a head-spinning number of variables, not least of which were avoiding local cops and hostile intelligence services like those from China and Russia.
As my heart hammered, I memorized the details of the upcoming rendezvous. I’d been a CIA officer for 12 years, but meeting agents was never my job.
In the language of modern espionage, the officer who was supposed to meet the agent had been “burned.” Basically, the bad guys knew who he was. With a hostile service on his tail, the compromised officer could not meet the agent, whose situation already simmered with danger.
Part of the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology, I wasn’t the kind of officer you read about in John Le Carré novels, furtively doing brush passes with agents or leaving coded messages in dead drops. I ran a technical collection platform which kept me behind a computer keyboard.
This meant that I was completely unknown to the opposition. Thus, the perfect candidate to replace the compromised officer.
My heartrate was still in the red zone as I drove, stopping multiple times to check for a tail. At a pharmacy. Stationery store. Pet shop where I bought dog food and studied the reflection of cars in the parking lot as I paid.
My inner voice was frantic the entire time. You’re not trained for this!
No one followed me. I got to the meeting site on time. The agent showed up with the package.
Far from the discreet Manila envelope of my dreams, it was a big box covered in bright birthday wrapping paper and topped with a bow.
The thing would have been less eye-catching if it was on fire.
Squelching my panic, I snatched it up and improvised an animated chat about a belated birthday gift for one of my children.
A few minutes later, we parted like the old friends we weren’t. The agent disappeared back into their double life, and I delivered the box into the proper hands.
Did it contain information that allowed the US to take down a terror network? Reveal critical information about nuclear weapons? Solve the mystery of what’s up with North Korea?
Twenty-five years later, I still have no idea.
That experience sowed the seeds of my second career as a mystery and thriller author. Urgency, uncertainty, deception, and risk are the foundation of my books, especially the Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series.
Starting with Cliff Diver, the series combines current events torn from today’s headlines with the highs and lows of my CIA career. Emilia is the first female police detective in Acapulco, confronting Mexico’s drug cartels, official corruption, and social inequality.
With its incredible horse-shaped bay and stunning beaches, Acapulco is a glorious setting marred by violence. It’s Mexico’s homicide capital, where drug gangs fight over territory, smuggling routes, and access to chemicals from China that pass through the port en route to inland drug labs to be made into fentanyl.
The most recent release, Barracuda Bay, is the ninth book in the Detective Emilia Cruz series. Emilia is on the run, alone, and stalked by killers. The reader is shoulder-to-shoulder with Emilia as she struggles with the unpredictability of a meeting, the pressure of a decision, the adrenaline of a breakthrough, and the vulnerability of deception. Raw, real feelings make her perilous situation believable.
To fellow writers, I encourage you to examine your own experiences. Everyone has moments of doubt, danger, and discovery. How did you feel? What physical reaction did you have? Build connections with readers by infusing your scenes and characters with these authentic emotional reactions.
As an author, your experiences are gifts that keep on giving.
Brightly wrapped and topped with a bow.
BARRACUDA BAY
Detective Emilia Cruz Book 9
With plot elements inspired by recent presidential elections in both the US and Mexico, Acapulco police detective Emilia Cruz stumbles on the body of a woman brutally shot to death. Incredibly, the victim was the sister of Acapulco’s ambitious mayor, who is running for re-election against an opponent with deep pockets.
Emilia’s investigation is immediately under pressure for a fast result. The victim’s ex-boyfriend has a suspiciously weak alibi, but is the crime scene the key to finding the murderer? The building was once used for a secret Mexican government operation targeting a ruthless drug lord.
Meanwhile, there’s a conspiracy within the police department to force Emilia out.
Before Emilia can save her job or arrest her prime suspect, she’s sent on an errand of mercy to Washington, DC. There she becomes a fugitive, hunted by killers masquerading as cops in a deadly game of political intrigue on the wrong side of the border.
Alone, desperate, and on the run, Emilia turns for help to a man she once vowed to murder. Her brother.
Given today's uncertainty over the future of the US-Mexico relationship and the popularity of international crime fiction in general, Barracuda Bay arrives at the perfect moment. This isn’t just another detective novel—it’s a visceral, immersive dive into the war on drugs and corruption from an author who has been on the front lines.
BUY LINKS
Amazon: https://geni.us/bbay2025
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/barracuda-bay-carmen-amato/1146877496
Books-a-Million: https://www.booksamillion.com/p/Barracuda-Bay/Carmen-Amato/9798989140374
ABOUT CARMEN
Carmen Amato is the author of the Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series, pitting the first female police detective in Acapulco against Mexico's cartels, corruption, and social inequality. Starting with Cliff Diver, the series has twice won the Poison Cup Award for Outstanding Series from CrimeMasters of America. Optioned for television, National Public Radio hailed it as “A thrilling series.”
Carmen is also the author of the Galliano Club historical fiction thrillers, inspired by her grandfather who was a deputy sheriff in New York during Prohibition. Murder at the Galliano Club won the 2023 Silver Falchion Award for Best Historical. Revenge at the Galliano Club was nominated for the same award in 2024.
Her standalone thrillers include The Hidden Light of Mexico City, which was longlisted for the 2020 Millennium Book Award.
A 30-year veteran of the CIA, where she focused on technical collection and counterdrug issues, Carmen is a recipient of both the National Intelligence Award and the Career Intelligence Medal. A judge for the BookLife Prize and Killer Nashville’s Claymore Award, her essays have appeared in Criminal Element, Publishers Weekly, and other national publications. She writes the popular Mystery Ahead newsletter on Substack.
Originally from upstate New York, after years of globe-trotting, she and her husband enjoy life in Tennessee.
Website: https://carmenamato.net/links
Substack: https://mysteryahead.substack.com
Thanks for posting today. What a fascinating story … that and your career are definitely an inspiration for your writing.