Dragon Cartel. Detective Emilia Cruz, #10

When Acapulco's first female police detective takes on a missing persons case, she becomes the ultimate wild card in a shadow war between the US and China. The rules of engagement are unknown and the body count is rising. Detective Emilia Cruz is running on fumes as she hunts for El Barracuda, a brutal cartel hitman leaving a blood-soaked trail across Acapulco. But when a Customs inspector vanishes from the city port, his desperate wife begs Emilia for help.
Emilia's investigation immediately runs into roadblocks. Port security doesn't want a city cop nosing around. The missing man's co-workers are less than helpful. The only clue to his disappearance is a list of commercial shipping containers. During an operation to find El Barracuda, Emilia finds an identical list. Is there a connection between the cartel killer and the missing Customs inspector?At the same time, the interrogation of a mysterious Chinese national turns a local crime into an international puzzle.
The man has all the hallmarks of a spy, including multiple passports and electronic devices. A missing inspector. A cartel assassin. And a conspiracy that links Mexico and the United States to China. In a beautiful city where life is cheap and secrets are a commodity, Emilia Cruz is about to find out that some lists are written in blood. For readers of authentic crime fiction and detective series, this taut police procedural delivers a brilliant female sleuth who relies on raw determination to crack a crime hidden inside international commercial shipping routes.
If you love vivid characters and international crime fiction by Ian Rankin, Ann Cleeves and Don Winslow, don't miss Detective Emilia Cruz. She'll take you on a trip to Acapulco you'll never forget.