Mirage – a Cash & Carrie Adventure by Tony Burnett
Mirage is a gritty crime thriller set in South Texas. The story plunges readers into the seedy and violent underworld of human smuggling, cartel influence, and corrupt government officials, where the desert sun burns the truth into the earth and the shadows hide what official reports never dare to tell. The novel exposes the hidden systems that allow exploitation to thrive across the U.S.–Mexico border.
Burnett’s world is populated by people who aren’t heroes—they’re survivors. Damaged. Driven. Dangerous. The heart of the story beats within two unforgettable characters whose unlikely partnership creates a narrative as explosive as it is emotionally deep.
Carrie James — The Survivor Turned Enforcer
Carrie James has spent her life outrunning demons she never asked for. Traumatized by years of psychological and physical abuse—pain that she blames on her philandering father—Carrie carries scars far deeper than the ones visible to the world. Driven by rage, shaped by trauma, and fueled by the burning need for vengeance, she becomes Bee County’s first female deputy sheriff. But Carrie doesn’t enter law enforcement for justice in the traditional sense. She enters it to expose the truth. To make wrong people hurt. To find answers about the death of her closest childhood friend, Carlos—a tragedy tied to a cross-border smuggling operation that reeks of deception and betrayal. What Carrie uncovers is far worse!
Kevin “DJ Cash” — The Criminal With a Badge
Kevin Cash—often known by his street name DJ Cash—is a hustler with ambition, a man who has always lived one step to the left of the law. When he infiltrates a produce company with cartel ties, he’s seeking money, access, and the illicit adrenaline rush that comes with playing both sides. But Cash isn’t one-dimensional; he’s funny, flawed, reckless, charming, and desperate for validation.
His world becomes further entangled when he falls for a fellow probation officer—and gets ensnared by the dangerously unstable daughter of a trafficking-linked business owner. His choices blur the line between survival and self-destruction, and Burnett paints his spiral with nuance, humor, and tragedy.
A Partnership Built on Pain
Carrie and Cash shouldn’t work together. They don’t trust each other. They don’t even like each other. Their motivations clash—one fueled by revenge, one by profit. Yet in the world Burnett builds, these two broken souls find themselves bound by the same enemy, the same corruption, and the same suffocating system.
Both must go undercover. Both must bend—or break—the law. Both must decide what justice really means when the institutions designed to uphold it are rotting from the inside.
Their missions diverge. Their fates collide. Their choices ignite a storm.
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Author Bio:
Tony Burnett is an award-winning poet, songwriter, and novelist whose work fearlessly examines the darkest corners of human nature—violence, trauma, justice, and the razor-thin line between survival and destruction. Published in more than forty international literary journals, including Connotation Press, Short Story America, Midwest Review, Gulf Coast, and Crack the Spine, Burnett has built a reputation as a writer who blends grit, lyricism, and psychological depth with unflinching honesty. His fiction and poetry explore the human condition through the lens of broken people seeking purpose, redemption, or vengeance—individuals who live on the blurred edge between morality and survival.
A former board president of the Writer’s League of Texas and the current managing editor and CEO of Kallisto Gaia Press, Burnett brings decades of storytelling craft to his work. His previous books—Southern Gentleman (short stories), The Reckless Hope of Scoundrels (poetry), and Watermelon Tattoo (winner of the Water Tower Press Novel Prize)—reflect his lifelong commitment to portraying humanity as it truly is: flawed, damaged, yearning, and resilient. He is also a writing instructor, workshop leader, and advocate for writers finding their authentic voice. Burnett lives in rural central Texas with his wife of 32 years, Robin, where he enjoys wandering backroads, poking metaphorical (and sometimes literal) wasp nests with short sticks, and fending off a pack of unruly Chihuahuas that claim his land as their kingdom.
With Mirage, Burnett delivers his most ambitious and explosive work yet—a border-crime thriller driven by trauma, vengeance, corruption, and the desperate longing for justice in a world built on exploitation.