Salting the Story with Spycraft by Carmen Amato

I’m delighted to welcome guest blogger and former CIA officer, Carmen Amato, to the Stiletto Gang. I think you’ll enjoy the intrigue behind her writing. See you in June! Debra 

Salting the Story with Spycraft by Carmen Amato

I was chatting with House of Mystery podcast co-hosts Alan Warren and Joe Goldberg when one of them asked an all-too-familiar question: “Why don’t you write spy thrillers instead of police procedurals?”

My first answer was that writing a spy thriller after 30 years as an intelligence officer with the CIA felt cliché. Stop the presses! Retired CIA spook writes spy thriller!

(Apologies to Joe, a fellow veteran of the CIA. He writes spy thrillers.)

My second answer is that crime fiction allows me to share Mexico’s rich culture, family traditions, incomparable food, and both modern and traditional architecture, all of which tug at my heartstrings after years living in the region.

Yet cartels, corruption, and violence threaten all of it. The Detective Emilia Cruz series set in Acapulco allows me to showcase the good and draw attention to the bad in a way that the news cannot.

As I developed the series, my role model was the Arkady Renko series by Martin Cruz Smith. Renko is a Moscow cop contending with systemic corruption, economic shortages and black market goods during the height of the Soviet Union. Debuting in 1981 with Gorky Park, this police procedural series took astonished Western readers inside Russia, exposing a country and its political system in a way that was never done before.

Likewise, the Detective Emilia Cruz police series takes readers inside Mexico in a way that has never been done before.

That’s not to say that my CIA career has been forgotten. Starting with Cliff Diver, first in the series, my experiences as a CIA intel officer both at home and overseas have found their way into the Detective Emilia Cruz series.

Of course, Emilia is not a spy but the first female police detective in Acapulco. Besides the resentment at having a woman in the squadroom, rampant official corruption means she lives in a stew of suspicion and deception. In addition to personal enemies, she also has to watch out for street violence and cartel retribution.

In a series loaded with action, spycraft skills like defensive driving, counter-surveillance and technical hacks are put to good use. Most recently in Barracuda Bay, the ninth and latest book in the series, Emilia draws on a critical spycraft technique: Disguise.

Traveling from Acapulco to Washington DC on an errand of mercy, Emilia witnesses a murder and barely escapes with her life. Hunted by killers disguised as cops, she becomes a fugitive in a strange land, without money, cell phone, passport or even a coat.

The killers have it all, even keys to her hotel room and rental car. They know she is a dark-haired woman in a gray pant suit, where she was last seen, and that she is likely to seek help at the Embassy of Mexico on Constitution Ave.

On the run, Emilia uses her childhood pickpocketing skills to acquire a few credit cards. She swiftly changes her appearance. The gray suit is exchanged for a black coat and pants. She adds hat, scarf, a guidebook, and a gossip magazine in English. Found in a trash bin, a bag from the Smithsonian Museum completes her transformation from terrified and disheveled foreigner to purposeful tourist bundled up against the November cold.

Changing clothes is one thing, but it’s another to adopt a totally different persona. The real test of her disguise skills comes when Emilia needs to meet someone in the fabled Willard Hotel’s Round Robin Bar, a watering hole for the rich and (politically) famous. In a desperate gamble, Emilia will attempt to pass herself off as a flamboyant movie star to whom she bears a strong resemblance.

Does Emilia carry it off? Let’s just say that while writing I recalled a question from one of my initial interviews at the CIA: “Have you ever pretended to be someone else?”

I believe I was hired on the strength of my answer.

ABOUT 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

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