In my mind’s eye, the Author’s Lounge is the ultimate place to gather and talk about books.

It has an eclectic coffeehouse vibe, with satisfyingly worn leather club chairs, a hissing espresso machine that turns out the world’s best lattes, and a bank of glass-fronted cabinets with pastries that taste delicious but contain zero calories. (I’m a fiction author, remember?)

The walls are lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. Library ladders slide on brass poles across the lines of books.

Tonight in the Author’s Lounge as we sip our lattes the topic is SHE DIDN’T RUN, my new thriller box set of three novels featuring three different women who didn’t run from danger . . . Or the truth.

SHE DIDN’T RUN contains three full-length women’s fiction thriller novels, plus a bonus short read, as a Kindle box set.

You get Awakening Macbeth, The Hidden Light of Mexico City, Cliff Diver and novella Acapulco Sugar.

Thriller Box Set BOOK 1

If the women featured in SHE DIDN’T RUN were to walk off the page and into the Author’s Lounge, first you’d meet Brodie Macbeth, the university professor from Awakening Macbeth. Tall and athletic, in the wake of her father’s unexplained death, Brodie is having terrible nightmares. As she tries to move on with her life, romance comes in the form of an Iraq War veteran. Too late, Brodie realizes that her nightmares are a game she doesn’t know how to play. The prize is her new lover’s soul.

Kirkus Reviews said this about Awakening Macbeth: “Both Brodie and Joe are relatable characters; indeed, he’s so perfectly flawed that many readers will fall in love with him, too . . . Suspenseful, page-turning paranormal romance.”

Thriller Box Set BOOK 2

Luz de Maria Alba Mora stops by the lounge, too. In The Hidden Light of Mexico City, poverty-stricken artist Luz is working as a domestic for a wealthy Mexico City family when she falls for the wrong man. From the opposite end of the social spectrum, Eduardo Cortez is an attorney investigating links between Mexico’s powerful Minister of Public Security and a notorious drug cartel.

It’s a Cinderella story set against the backdrop of Mexico’s drug war, where violence buys loyalty and the odds are against survival.

The Hidden Light of Mexico City was longlisted for the 2020 Millennium Book Award. Literary Fiction Review called it “A poignant love story between the unlikeliest of individuals . . . woven seamlessly into an enthralling political drama.”

Thriller Box Set BOOK 3

Last to join us in the lounge is Emilia Cruz, the first female police detective in Acapulco. Brave and defiant, yet afraid of commitment, Emilia is the lone woman in a police unit that doesn’t want her and is still trying to break her.

Cliff Diver tells the story of Emilia’s first big case, when she must investigate the death of her own lieutenant. When the victim’s seamy off-duty life is exposed, the city’s mayor and the powerful head of the police union try to shut down the investigation. Yet is the killer one of Emilia’s fellow detectives? Feeling like one of Acapulco’s famous cliff divers praying not to smash into the rocks below, she must choose between truth and survival.

Kirkus Reviews called the book “Consistently exciting.” The Detective Emilia Cruz series is a 2-time winner of the Outstanding Series award from CrimeMasters of America.

Detective Emilia Cruz is also the star of exclusive bonus novella Acapulco Sugar.

Also sold separately, the three full-length novels in SHE DIDN’T RUN box set enjoy a combined total of over 1300 Amazon reviews with an average rating of 4.5 out of 5. 

As we finish our lattes in the Author’s Lounge, someone asks why I write about strong women. I think the answer is that strong women have always been my role model.

I met many of them during my 30-year career as a Central Intelligence Agency intelligence officer. It’s why I write authentic thrillers loaded with action, deception and intrigue. Personal experiences make for plot twists you’ll never see coming.

Get SHE DIDN’T RUN on Amazon today.

Carmen Amato | Award-winning mystery author | Detective Emilia Cruz police series, Galliano Club historical thrillers, standalone suspense | Ex-CIA intel officer | Good at keeping secrets | https://carmenamato.net/links