Meet Carmen Amato, Author of the Emilia Cruz police procedural series set in Acapulco, the political thriller The Hidden Light of Mexico City, and the Galliano Club historical fiction thrillers.
Find Carmen at carmenamato.net or mysteryahead.subtack.com.
2 minute read, 3 minute listen. Transcript lightly edited for length and clarity.
LINDA: Hello, everyone.
Thank you very much for joining us on From Fact to Fiction, where we unpack the truth behind my favorite specialty thrillers. Think Michael Crichton, John le Carré, Tom Clancy.
Our expert today is mystery and thriller author Carmen Amato. Carmen is a retired CIA intelligence officer, a recipient of both the National Intelligence Award and the Career Intelligence Medal, previously head of a U.S. National Intelligence Tradecraft School and an intelligence collection program with responsibility across the Western Hemisphere.
Could we have a better expert? No.
Carmen draws on her counter-drug and espionage experiences to craft intrigue-filled crime fiction, notably the award-winning Detective Amelia Cruz police series set in Acapulco.
The series won the Poison Cup Award for Outstanding Series from Crime Masters of America in multiple years and has been optioned for television. Carmen, we couldn't have anybody better to talk to about this book.
Thank you so much and welcome to From Fact to Fiction.
CARMEN: Thank you, Linda.
I'm excited to be here. I really love the focus you've got going for this podcast.
LINDA: Thank you. You got to do what you love, I realized.
Before we discuss Karla's Choice, would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself and your background?
CARMEN: Well, I am originally from upstate New York and now living in Tennessee.
I spent 30 years with the CIA. My focus was mostly technical collection and counter drug efforts.
And so writing mystery is my second career, which wonderfully lets me bring a lot of small details and personal experiences into my books, especially the Detective Amelia Cruz series, but also in my very first published book, the political thriller, The Hidden Light of Mexico City, that did have a lot of personal observations and a few little scenes from all the years that I spent in Mexico and Central America.
I am, let's see, working on my 18th title, which will also be the 10th book in the Detective Amelia Cruz series. Book number nine, Barracuda Bay, was released in February. So I'm not the world's fastest writer, kind of aiming for a book a year.
LINDA: That is awesome, Carmen. You're very prolific and your books are wonderful.
If you like Karla's Choice, you will love The Hidden Light of Mexico City, and visa-versa. And if you haven't already, join Carmen and me as we unpack the facts behind the fiction of Nick Harkaway’s Karla's Choice, which continues the John le Carré George Smiley spy series.
And thank you again for joining us on From Fact to Fiction.
WATCH our review of Karla’s Choice on Substack or on YouTube.
LISTEN on From Fact To Fiction: Thrilling Book Reviews Podcast
Find Carmen at carmenamato.net or mysteryahead.subtack.com.
Note - If you are interested in being an author/expert on the show, please drop me a note or leave a comment.
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