COMING FOR OUR NOV 9 MEETING!!
Beginning with Cliff Diver, her award-winning Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series pits the first female police detective in Acapulco against Mexico’s drug cartels, government corruption, and social inequality. Named “A thrilling series” by National Public Radio, the series was awarded the Poison Cup for Outstanding Series from CrimeMasters of America in both 2019 and 2020 and has been optioned for television.
The Detective Emilia Cruz series pits the first female police detective in Acapulco against Mexico’s drug cartels, corruption, and social inequality.
Political thriller The Hidden Light of Mexico City was longlisted for the 2020 Millennium Book Award and Carmen’s new Galliano Club historical thriller series was inspired by the stories told by her grandfather who was a deputy sheriff during Prohibition.
Previously head of a U.S. National Intelligence Tradecraft School, she also headed an intelligence collection program with responsibility across the Western Hemisphere. Originally from upstate New York, Carmen was educated there as well as in Virginia and Paris, France, while experiences in Mexico and Central America ignited her writing career.
From Intelligence Officer to Mystery Author
Carmen Amato turns lessons from a career with the Central Intelligence Agency into crime fiction loaded with danger and deception. A 30-year veteran of the CIA, Carmen is a recipient of both the National Intelligence Award and the Career Intelligence Medal.
If you love international police procedural series by Ian Rankin, Jo Nesbo, Ann Cleeves, Peter May, Louise Penny, and Jussi Adler-Olsen, you’ll want to read the Detective Emilia Cruz series. It’s a must read for fans of Don Winslow’s cartel and border thrillers set in Mexico, as is her standalone thriller, The Hidden Light of Mexico City.
Her work has appeared in Huffpost, Criminal Element, Publishers Weekly, and other national publications. She has been a judge for the BookLife Prize and Killer Nashville’s Claymore Award and is a recipient of both the National Intelligence Award and the Career Intelligence Medal.
She holds a BA (cum laude) in history and political science from LeMoyne College and a Masters in International Relations from the University of Virginia as well as certificates of completion from Institut Catholique in Paris, France, and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Originally from upstate New York, after years of globe-trotting she and her husband enjoy life in Tennessee.
Her family tree includes a mayor, a Mensa genius, and the first homicide in the state of Connecticut with an automatic weapon. The perpetrator, her great-grandfather, eluded a statewide manhunt after killing two people, one of whom was his wife. He was never brought to justice.
Sign up for her newsletter … and join us Thu., 9 November on Zoom to hear her speak of what it is like to work in the CIA, how that first career helped (or hindered) a second career as a mystery author, and how she ended up writing the Detective Emilia Cruz series set in Acapulco as well as the historical Galliano Club thriller series. A Q&A period will follow as time allows. All questions welcome!