When Detective Emilia Cruz finds the body of a young woman brutally murdered in a derelict building, she's shocked to learn that the victim is the sister of Acapulco's ambitious mayor, who is running for re-election.

Emilia suspects the murder is a case of femicide by the victim's estranged boyfriend. But the crime scene itself is a clue she can't overlook. The building was once used for a secret Mexican government operation targeting a ruthless drug lord.

But before Emilia can arrest her prime suspect, she is sent on an errand of mercy to Washington, DC.

It's a trap.

After witnessing a second murder, Emilia becomes a fugitive in a foreign land. Frightened, alone, and hunted by killers masquerading as cops, she only has her wits to survive a deadly game of political intrigue on the wrong side of the border.

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

"Emilia is a character who is close to my heart" - MysterySequels

"Amato brings her characters to life with her vivid writing style and sets them on the streets of a Mexico steeped in Catholicism and corruption" - OnlineBookClub.org

With unflinching authenticity from the author's own espionage and counterdrug experience in Mexico and Central America, this is a female police detective mystery series like no other.

The Detective Emilia Cruz series is for fans of international mystery and crime by Ian Rankin, Jo Nesbo, Ann Cleeves, Donna Leon and Liza Marklund, plus the Department Q series by Jussi Adler-Olsen. Fans of Don Winslow's cartel and border thrillers set in Mexico love the plots torn from the headlines of the Detective Emilia Cruz police series set in Acapulco.