A stunning political thriller from a former CIA officer on the front lines of Mexico’s drug war. Expect characters who leap off the page and a chilling border scenario that could be tomorrow’s headlines.

2020 Longlist, Millennium Book Award

As presidential elections near, Mexico City attorney Eduardo Cortez Castillo uncovers a scheme between a powerful government official and Mexico's most dangerous drug cartel.

Coded messages . . . A secret website . . . Clever money laundering.

The conclusion is terrifying. With deep state help, a ruthless druglord is poised to buy Mexico’s presidency.

Eduardo is marked for death by cartel assassins. Instead of abandoning the investigation, he follows the money trail deep into drug smuggling territory where the odds of survival are low.

Back in Mexico City, a housemaid who dreams of being an artist faces a painful choice. Try to escape poverty and make a new life alone in the United States. Or believe in Eduardo’s promises of a life together, which seem unlikely in status-conscious Mexico.

She doesn’t know that her time is running out.

Eduardo’s enemies are looking for her, too.

This fast-moving political thriller takes you on a riveting ride through Mexico's rigid class system and the country's spiraling drug violence.

Authentic and revealing, much of the action is drawn from the author’s own experiences during her 30-year career with the Central Intelligence Agency focusing on counterdrug issues.

”A rivetingly dramatic tale of politics and corruption, and a man and a woman from opposite ends of the social spectrum who fall in love.” - Literary Fiction Review

“Captivating and thrilling” - InDTale Magazine

Love international thrillers by Nelson DeMille, Andrew Gross, Ken Follett, Lee Child and Tom Clancy? AMERICAN DIRT or Don Winslow’s cartel and border thrillers set in Mexico?

You won't want to miss THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY.

Author Carmen Amato is a former CIA intelligence officer who uses her own counterdrug and espionage experiences to craft intrigue-filled crime fiction that keeps you guessing until the very end. Amato is a recipient of both the National Intelligence Award and the Career Intelligence Medal. Her award-winning Detective Emilia Cruz police series pits Acapulco’s first female police detective against cartels and corruption.

BOOKS BY CARMEN AMATO The Detective Emilia Cruz series CLIFF DIVER HAT DANCE DIABLO NIGHTS KING PESO PACIFIC REAPER 43 MISSING RUSSIAN MOJITO NARCO NOIR MADE IN ACAPULCO
Suspense THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY AWAKENING MACBETH