CIA undercover operative Marialena Morales is lured to the badlands of the Guajira Peninsula on the Venezuela-Colombia border to rescue kidnapped Vermont Senator Joe LaCarta before high-level conspirators in the US can force a full-scale US invasion of Venezuela.
Jim Ciullo (www.JimCiullo.com ) is a member of Mystery Writers of America and of Sisters in Crime (national and New England). He lives in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts and spends a good deal of time with family in Vermont. In addition to writing, he works as a consultant to human service and education agencies.
In 1998, Jim took early retirement from the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation, where he served twenty-one years in the development of a community-based system of services for persons with mental retardation and their families. During this period, he worked in several capacities, most notably as the Area Director for Berkshire County.
He received a B.A. from Boston College and a Masters in Education from the University of Massachusetts. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Venezuela from 1969 to 1971, an experience that inspired his novels ORINOCO and MARACAIBO. He also taught English as a Foreign Language in Madrid, Spain.
Jim has been involved in a number of community volunteer activities. He has traveled extensively in Latin America and in Europe, especially Italy, where he researched his novel A TANGO IN TUSCANY. He is fluent in Spanish, and can get along in Italian. Besides travel, his interests include sports and politics, both world and national.
