Writing the Only Woman in the Room

“Beat it,” Silvio said.

He shoved both Castro and Gomez aside and came into the office. He slammed the door and pressed his back against it.

“I never wanted a woman detective in here.” Silvio was a big man and if he wanted to make Emilia feel trapped, he was succeeding. “I’ll do everything I can to f**k you over until you quit.”

Emilia couldn’t help but laugh. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

Silvio gave a start, obviously not expecting her to say that.

When I wrote this dramatic moment in Cliff Diver, the first Detective Emilia Cruz thriller set in Acapulco, Silvio’s dialogue was already scripted.

I’d already been there and done that.

An identical conversation occurred when I worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. About five years into my career, I moved to a new office, recruited by a manager trying to breathe new life into a stodgy team of PhD analysts. All male, as was our manager.

“Pete” was assigned as my mentor. This gave him ample opportunities to sabotage my work. When I finally confronted him, he confessed that he’d never worked with a woman before, didn’t want to work with one now and would do everything he could to get me to leave.

He delivered his threat as if he expected to shock me. I couldn’t help but laugh and deliver  the same line that Detective Emilia Cruz would say years later in fiction.

Long since retired, I recently recalled the encounter when recording an episode of the Amato2Berrick Crime Conversations on YouTube with UK crime writer Jane Harvey-Berrick (Dead Water, Dead Reckoning) for our buddy read of The Trespasser by Tana French.

In The Trespasser, Antoinette Conway is the only female police detective on the Dublin Murder Squad. She’s convinced that all her male colleagues are out to get her.

Her point of view is a soul-eating combination of rage, paranoia and scorn. In every situation, Antoinette is looking for a fight, whether physical, verbal or emotional.

In contrast, Detective Emilia Cruz follows the pragmatic approach I took during my CIA career when I was the only woman in the room. A tiny minority of male co-workers acted like jerks and had to be dealt with, the faster the better. Like me, Emilia stands up for herself.

Although she grew up on Acapulco’s streets and knows how to use her fists, Emilia isn’t propelled by rage like Antoinette.

  In Barracuda Bay, the ninth and latest release in the series, the chief of police is the jerk who doesn’t want Emilia in the room.

In the series’ prequel, Made in Acapulco, he was loath to shake her hand at a badge ceremony. Fast forward a few fictional years and Emilia wants to get married. It’s the chief’s chance to boot her off the force.

Even worse, the chief recruits her former partner and current boss to help.

And who is the former partner and current boss? You guessed it. The very same Lieutenant Silvio who gave her such a rough time in the first book in the series, Cliff Diver.

In Barracuda Bay, the plot against Emilia unfolds after she finds a woman’s body in a derelict building. The murder case is explosive—the victim is the mayor’s sister, and election season is heating up.

Meanwhile, the crime scene holds secrets. The building once housed a covert government operation targeting a brutal drug lord that went sideways.

Before Emilia can zero in on her prime murder suspect, she’s dispatched to Washington, DC where she becomes a target of killers disguised as cops. Alone and desperate, Emilia is caught in a lethal web of corruption, betrayal, and political intrigue.

Barracuda Bay adds a heady dose of tension to Emilia’s situation as the only woman in the room. As one reviewer wrote: “The hits keep on coming as Detective Cruz is spun through a whirlwind that links cartels, crooks, and various government agencies.”

Before I sign off, you might be wondering what happened to “Pete.”

Six months after our confrontation, he left the CIA because his wife got a job in another state. He’d be a house husband until he found a job there.

Ironic, right? I couldn’t have written a better ending.

Barracuda Bay

Political corruption turns Acapulco’s first female police detective into a fugitive on the run in Washington DC.

“A thrilling series” — National Public Radio

In a derelict building for sale, 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.

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. Alone, desperate and on the run, Emilia turns for help to a human trafficker she once vowed to murder. Her brother.

From Acapulco’s beaches to the streets of Washington, DC, the stakes couldn’t be higher in this electrifying, page-turning thriller.

2019 and 2020 Poison Cup award, Outstanding Series – CrimeMasters of America

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Carmen Amato is the award-winning author of 18 mysteries and thrillers, including 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.”

Her Galliano Club historical fiction thrillers include Murder at the Galliano Club, which won the 2023 Silver Falchion Award for Best Historical.

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

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Email: carmen@carmenamato.net