The
Lizard’s Tale
by
Kurt Kamm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE:
Mystery/Crime Thriller
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Kurt Kamm has written a novel that's a literary crime novel, with a strong thread of non-fiction running through it. The Lizard's Tale is a tale of crime—with an a wide-ranging cast of characters.
When the DEA goes up against the Sinaloa Cartel, an orphan and an endangered lizard are caught in the conflict. The action moves from Guatemala to Mexico to Catalina Island off the coast of California.
Alejandro, a middle class Guatemalan, wants his share, and makes a deal with the cartel. Now he’s risking his life to deliver the goods.
El Dedo, a brilliant financier, is the Sinaloa Cartel’s banker. He worries about what to do with the billions of dollars collecting dust in his underground vault.
Ryan, a DEA Special Agent, needs to make a high profile case to get a promotion. Is the big yacht headed for California carrying a Mexican drug shipment?
Kate, a wildlife officer on Catalina Island, smells smoke. When she heads out in the middle of the night to investigate a fire, she makes an astonishing discovery.
Jorge, an orphan from the streets of Mexico, is abandoned in the United States. Will he find his way back home and track down his mother’s killer?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt:
Dedo was
one of the few outsiders at the top of the cartel hierarchy. He came
from a different background than most of the drug lords, who had
grown up in poor towns in the Sierra Madres where people suffered a
hard existence living in hovels made of cinderblocks. Dedo had no
poverty to escape. He grew up in Mexico City and lived a blessed
childhood. His father owned a small Mexican chemical business that
grew large when it began to supply the Cartels with the ingredients
used to make methamphetamine. His mother was Swiss, and had worked
for a chemical company in Basle when she met his father. Dedo
inherited his intellect and business sense from his father. His grey
eyes came from his mother.
When his
father brought him to the State of Sinaloa for the first time, Dedo
stood in the dust and blasting heat and felt the moisture evaporating
from his skin. “Those mountain highlands,” his father had told
him, pointing off into the distance, “are ideal for growing
poppies. All they need is sunlight and moisture.” Then he turned
and pointed in the direction of the Pacific Ocean, and continued,
“And out in those valleys between the mountains and the coast, the
climate is perfect for growing marijuana.” Finally, his father
looked at Dedo and told him, “Fortunately for us, sunshine and
water don’t produce methamphetamine. For that, they need
chemicals—a lot of chemicals—and that’s why we’re here.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR
Bio and Links:
Malibu,
California resident Kurt Kamm has written a series of firefighter
mystery novels, which have won several literary awards. His newest
novel, The Lizard’s Tale, provides a unique look inside the
activities of the Mexican drug cartels and the men dedicated to
stopping them.
Kurt
has used his contact with CalFire, Los Angeles County and Ventura
County Fire Departments, as well as the ATF and DEA to write
fact-based (“faction”) novels. He has attended classes at El
Camino Fire Academy and trained in wildland firefighting, arson
investigation and hazardous materials response. He has also attended
the ATF and DEA Citizen’s Academies. After graduating from the DEA
Citizen’s Academy in 2014, he began work on The Lizard’s Tale.
Kurt
has built an avid fan base among first responders and other readers.
A graduate of Brown University and Columbia Law School, Kurt was
previously a financial executive and semi-professional bicycle racer.
He was also Chairman of the UCLA/Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
Foundation for several years.
Visit
his author website at www.kurtkamm.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kurt
Kamm LITERARY AWARDS
TUNNEL
VISIONS (MCM Publishing 2014)
2014
USA Best Book Award -Fiction: General – Finalist
HAZARDOUS
MATERIAL (MCM Publishing 2013)
Best
Novel 2013 – Public Safety Writers Association
Winner
of the 2012 Hackney Literary Award for best novel of the year ($5,000
PRIZE)
Reader's
Favorite 2013 – Finalist – Urban Fiction
The
2012 Dana Award – Finalist
Eric
Hoffer Award - Finalist (2014)
Excerpt
published in Birmingham Arts Journal
http://www.birminghamartsjournal.com/pdf/baj10-2.pdf
ONE
FOOT IN THE BLACK (MCM Publishing 2012)
The
2012 USA Best Book Awards – Fiction: General – Finalist
The
2013 Beverly Hills Book Awards – Fiction: General – Finalist
Excerpt
published in Felons, Flames and Ambulance Rides: Stories About
America's Public Safety Heroes
CODE
BLOOD (MCM Publishing 2011)
Writer’s
Type - First Chapter Competition. January 2011- First Place
2012
International Book Awards - Fiction: Cross Genre Category – First
Place
National
Indie Excellence Book Awards – Faction (fiction based on fact) -
Winner of the 2012 Award
The
2012 USA Best Book Awards - Fiction: Horror - Winner
LuckyCinda
Publishing Contest 2013 First Place – Thriller
Reader's
Favorite 2013– Finalist – Horror Fiction
Knoxville
Writer’s Guild - 2011 Novella or Novel Excerpt – 2nd Place
RED
FLAG WARNING Aberdeen Bay 2010
The
Infinite Writer– Mystery 2010 – First Place
The
Written Art Awards - Mystery/Thriller 2010 – First Place
Royal
Dragonfly – Mystery Category 2011 – First Place
Buy
Links:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Interview with Jorge, or La Cuiza, A Character in TALE OF THE LIZARD
Before proceeding with the interview, it is important to know Jorge's backstory. Maria Gabriella, the beautiful prostitute who has become the mistress of Dedo, the banker for the Sinaloa Cartel, describes Jorge as follows:
“There’s
a young boy, his real name is Jorge, but everyone calls him the La
Cuiza—the Little Gecko—because he
collects lizards.”
Maria
Gabriella says she wants to bring Jorge to live at Dedo's mansion.
She explains that Jorge is the son of one of the prostitutes she once
worked with and his mother is dead:
“Jorge
was only five at the time, and after Luisa was killed, he had no one.
We took turns, caring for him for a few days or weeks, but that was
all anyone could do. No one had the time to raise a child. He has
never had a real home and now that he’s older, he just drifts
from
place to place, sleeping in someone’s entryway or kitchen, eating
meals wherever he finds them.”
Jorge
is not a normal child. He has had a severe traumatic shock—he has
watched a man kill his mother:
The
room was filled with the lemon scent his mamá
wore when she worked, and the odor of rancid sweat from the naked
body grinding away on top of her. The man, who had come many times to
visit his mother, intensified his efforts. The bed shook and the
sagging web of springs holding the filthy mattress pressed down on
top of Jorge. In a few months, he would be six—too big to crawl
under his mother’s bed.
A
cuiza, a small, unremarkable gray-green gecko, crawled through the
dust on the concrete floor under the bed, trapped between Jorge and
the wall.
“No,
dammit, no, no,” the man bellowed. The bed stopped swaying.
Jorge
heard the sound of a hand slapping flesh and his mamá
whimpered.
“You
pig,” the man said. “Do better than that. Damn you.”
The
second impact was louder, harder. Jorge heard her high-pitched cry.
He reached for the gecko and it flattened itself against the
concrete, remaining motionless in the dust. Its head was inches from
Jorge's face. He looked at its black eyes and it stared back. A live
insect—a tiny fly—struggled in its jaws. The little lizard
swallowed the insect.
The
man became furious and the blows were more powerful. This had
happened before, but it had never gone on so long or sounded so
brutal. His mother’s cries turned to screams and Jorge tried not to
listen. He grabbed the cuiza's tail with his fingers.
The
gecko made a chirping sound—chik, chik,
chik—shed its tail, and skittered away.
The
force of the final blow knocked his mamá
off the bed. From his hiding place, Jorge saw the brown skin of her
naked back as she lay on the floor.
As
a result of the emotional shock, Jorge has become what psychologists
call a selective
mute. This
means that although he is capable of talking, he has withdrawn into
himself and does not speak. As a result of the juxtaposition of his
mother's death and the gecko he sees under her bed, Jorge has become
obsessed with lizards, and the only words he utters are chik,
chik, chik, the
series of three chirps which is the sound of the gecko.
With
this background, we can now proceed to the interview:
INTERVIEWER:
Jorge, tell us what you saw when you descended into Dedo's
underground vault.
JORGE:
Chik, chik, chik.
INTERVIEWER:
The vault supposedly had billions of dollars of American cash. Is
that true?
JORGE:
Chik, chik, chik.
INTERVIEWER:
Uh huh. Ok, perhaps you could describe the trip you took to Catalina
Island on Dedo's yacht.
JORGE:
Chik, chik, chik.
INTERVIEWER:
Well, young man, thank you. Your comments have been very interesting.
JORGE:
Chik, chik, chik.
Does
Jorge ever say anything but "Chik, chik, chik?" Does he
ever get over his trauma and regain his voice? Read TALE
OF THE LIZARD and
find out!
He
watched the man’s bare foot poke her and then push her body aside
before he walked out the room. When Jorge crawled out from under the
bed, he saw the blood dripping from his mother’s face, collecting
in a small red pool on the floor. He wanted to wake her, but his
brain no longer controlled his voice. His throat was frozen—no
words came. Jorge lay down on the floor, curled up next to his mamá,
and cried silent tears. Above him, he saw the tailless gecko climbing
the bedroom wall.
“” The Cuiza made the gecko sound, ,
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE
a Rafflecopter giveaway
