Imagine if you were the first and only female police detective in Acapulco. Cartels and corruption are everywhere. Life gets cheaper every day. 

You discover murder victims sacrificed to Santa Muerte, Mexico’s forbidden saint of death. 

Other bodies swing from billboards. 

Will you investigate? Or be cursed? 

In the remote Coyuca Lagoon reserve, Detective Emilia Cruz Emilia and her partner Franco Silvio find an elaborate altar to Santa Muerte next to the body of a known gang member. Prayers to the so-called Skeleton Saint send a warning to the death saint’s enemies. 

Gang warfare quickly sweeps across Acapulco. Mutilated bodies, public messages, and more altars panic the city. 

The police investigation is soon a maze of unholy clues. At the same time, everyone close to Emilia has a brush with death. Bad luck? Or is the Skeleton Saint’s curse coming true? 

From a beachfront hostel to a voodoo market, the more Emilia discovers, the worse things get. When she goes undercover as a Santa Muerte worshipper on the eve of the Day of the Dead, her life will be stripped of everything she holds dear. 

Her family. 

Her lover. 

Her job. 

Her soul. 

“Carmen Amato has created a compelling, complex, well-rounded and durable character . . . PACIFIC REAPER is a great read — and a great reason to pick up the other books in Amato’s Emilia Cruz series.” – Jim Nesbitt, author of the Ed Earl Burch detective series. 

“The mystery could certainly send a thrill to crime-loving aficionados.” – Latina Book Club 

Get all the DETECTIVE EMILIA CRUZ books:

Cliff Diver 
Hat Dance 
Diablo Nights 
King Peso 
Pacific Reaper 
43 Missing 
Made in Acapulco