No 4 in the East Timor Crime Series.
The murder of an American marine biologist on the remote island of Atauro, north of East Timor’s capital of Dili, turns a tropical paradise into a hotbed of intrigue. FBI agent Sara Carter, on secondment to the local INTERPOL mission, is sent by her embassy to ensure the widow’s speedy return to the US and her father-an influential senator-no matter what. Timorese police investigator Vincintino Cordero is assigned the case with instructions to keep Carter at bay and prove Timor’s law enforcement system is thorough and effective in order to strengthen its case for continued US aid. Meanwhile Carter’s translator, the young Timorese police officer Estefana dos Carvalho, is haunted by fears that the spirits of dead exiles her father was forced to bury on the island will extract their revenge on the children she expects her marriage to produce. Ignoring their instructions, Carter and Cordero join forces only to find that everyone has something to hide on Atauro and even the island’s past is shrouded in mystery. and even the island’s past is shrouded in mystery. (Coming in April, 2025: Pre-order through any online book retailer.)
No 3 in the East Timor Crime Series.
Timorese police investigator Vincintino Cordero is assigned the case of two youths, rival gang members, found a week apart with their throats slit and a betel quid placed in their mouths. The case distracts him from spending time with FBI Agent Sara Carter before she completes her INTERPOL assignment and heads home to Arizona. But Carter is facing distractions of her own as the US ambassador and INTERPOL’s director pressure her to stay in East Timor. When the fiancé of her friend, police officer Estefana dos Carvalho, goes missing, all signs point to his abduction by whoever is behind the murder of the gang members. That draws Carter into Cordero’s investigation where the stakes, like the dangers, rise. A gang war could be imminent like that which tore the new nation of East Timor apart eight years earlier. Or young Timorese could be acting out a cult leader’s prophecy that those who fought and died for the country’s independence will rise from their graves and win a more favorable victory if the right conditions are met. Which of these possibilities do the betel quids in the dead youths’ mouths signify or is it something more mysterious and even more sinister?
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Second book in the East Timor Crime Series.
You order on any online book retail site or direct from Coffeetown Press (US).
An agnostic Catholic priest and an old woman believed to be a witch become key to FBI Agent Sara Carter and her Timorese police colleague, Vincintino Cordero, unraveling the truth behind an historic mass killing, a more recent murder, and the death of a traditional village leader who used superstition to mask his greed.
https://www.thebigthrill.org/2023/06/the-sand-diggers-skull-by-chris-mcgillion/
The first book in the East Timor Crime Series.
Babies are being abducted from their homes in the mountains along East Timor’s southern border with Indonesia. Local villagers believe the babies are sacrificed in order to appease ancestral spirits disturbed by development projects encroaching on traditional land. FBI Agent Sara Carter, on secondment to INTERPOL, is assigned to investigate the case which is suspected of involving an illegal international adoption racket servicing childless rich Western couples. She is assigned a Timorese police colleague, Vincintino Cordero, whose family escaped East Timor after the Indonesian invasion and who grew up in Australia. But the two have personalities, policing styles and agendas that clash complicating the investigation. Assisted by a young female Timorese police officer they must find a way to work together to hunt down those responsible for the abductions before villagers take matters into their own hands. It’s a dangerous investigation, as the discovery of two murder victims attests. And nerves are on edge after the local police kill a crocodile, the totem central to Timor’s creation myth. Time is running out before anger over the treatment of the crocodile adds to popular unrest about the missing babies and erupts into widespread violence.
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