Randomize ME

THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY is a novel about power, corruption, and survival in Mexico.

I lived in Mexico, where I met people who inspired the story and characters.

It started out as a book about the country’s social system–which is more of a caste system than most Americans realize. The plot was helped along by today’s headlines about drug cartel violence. I’m a news junkie so finding inspiration for my books isn’t hard.

The main female character, Luz de Maria Alba Mora, is close to my heart. I met a lot of women like her in Mexico, women who were stuck at the bottom of Mexican society although they had the potential to run a major corporation. But they were maids or worked at a laundry and didn’t expect to ever be more than that. Luz had to be brave enough to get herself out of that mindset when the opportunity arose.

But more often that not, female readers want to talk to me about Eddo Cortez Castillo, the government attorney who goes after the drug cartel in the book. Okay, he’s hot. And so is the sex.

I hope readers will want to see the movie! (There is this dreamcast in my head with Eva Mendes and Antonio Banderas and Andy Garcia!)

More seriously, I hope that the reader will have learned something new about Mexico. Writing Luz’s transformation made me feel hopeful about Mexico’s future. If I can imagine changes for Mexican women, then it can happen.

CLIFF DIVER, the first full-length novel in the Emilia Cruz series. The series kicked off last August with the novella MADE IN ACAPULCO. Emilia is the first and only female detective on the Acapulco police force. She can take the heat . . .

If you liked Ken Follett’s early suspense books–EYE OF THE NEEDLE, KEY TO REBECCA, you’ll probably like THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY.

If you like international detective fiction such as the Rebus books by Ian Rankin, the Wallander series by Henning Mankell, or the Arkady Renko books by Martin Cruz Smith, you’ll like the Emilia Cruz series.