Carmen Amato

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 is a back-to-back winner of 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 a finalist 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, Carmen's experiences in Mexico and Central America ignited her writing career. After years of globetrotting, she currently resides in Tennessee with a German Shepherd named Bear and her husband, who is also a retired intelligence officer. They have two grown children.

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.